The List
by KatrioneSnape
Summary: COMPLETE After saving his life, Hermione gives Snape safety in her childhood home. Their bond grows as he hides from the remaining death eaters. When she finally catches a glimpse of a little book where he is always scribbling she digs out her time turner to help him right his list of the wrongs he most regrets. They set out to change the past and create a new future...together.
1. Chapter 1: Saved

**Chapter 1: Saved**

She had already seen far too many deaths that day. She didn't know why she was even mourning the murder of a Death Eater, but the idea of losing yet another person she had seen almost every day since walking into gates of Hogwarts for the first time was simply more than she could handle. Handing Harry the vial with shaking hands, her overactive brain was already knitting spells together into a plan.

As Harry ran to the pensieve in Dumbledore's old office and Ron rushed back to check on the rest of the Weasley clan, she knelt next to her dying potions professor and began murmuring spells as she pointed her wand at wound after wound. _Sangre conglacio_, the bleeding stopped mid-drip. _Venenum dismoveo_, the snake's venom began rolling out of the wounds and absorbing into his already blood-stained robes. _Dolor suadet_, she dared to glance in his eyes to see if he was still with her. Deep brown. For a fraction of a second she froze, never having been close enough to him to see the actual color of his dark eyes. Pleading. Looking into his eyes she heard his pleas as clearly as if he had spoken out loud. _Don't let me die. Not here on the cold boathouse floor. Don't let me die here. Alone. _She kept working as fast as she dared, but did not break eye contact again. Whether or not her fledgling knowledge of magical emergency medicine was up to the task, he would not fade away without someone by his side.

She was confident the venom was out now. While she sealed shut his wounds, she frantically searched her mind for what to do next. Anywhere near Hogwarts was out of the question. You-know-who was convinced that it was necessary for Snape to die in order the Elder wand to be truly loyal to him and would stop at nothing to gain the allegiance of the Elder wand. If he even suspected Snape was still alive he would immediately find him. On the other hand, the tattooed snake's tongue poking out from under his torn and bloody sleeve reminded Hermione that he was still a Death Eater. She couldn't just let him go free. She needed somewhere she could protect from the inside and lock from the outside. 12 Grimmauld Place would work, but the Order would not appreciate her housing a Death Eater in their secret headquarters, especially without explaining why.

Why was she risking her life for this man? Hermione knew enough from her months hiding in secret and hunting horcruxes to trust her instincts and let her mind sweep this salient issue under the rug until she had time to take it out and examine it properly. The Forrest of Dean? They had already spent months hiding out in remote locations throughout England, but she didn't have the time to set up an entire site the way they had been doing. She heard a noise from outside the boathouse and without thinking further grabbed onto his slumped over shoulders and disapparated.

Looking up at the flowered wallpaper, she cringed momentarily at the snide comments the Snape of her memories would have made at the decorations in her childhood bedroom. Turning back to her fragile passenger she ensured Snape had survived the journey. Checking for a pulse and finding none, she panicked briefly before realizing she had frozen his blood to prevent the now-removed poison from working its way to his heart. Looking desperately into his eyes for some kind of affirmation that she wasn't making a fatal mistake. She wasn't sure if she saw an imperceptible nod or if it was just her imagination, but she took a deep breath and released the spell holding back his bloodflow. She watched in his eyes as her spell took its effect. Fear, pain, apprehension, then relief. His breathing began to get deeper and her fingers, still on his wrist, received affirmation that his heart was not only still beating but getting stronger. She sat next to him, holding his wrist with one hand, absentmindedly straightening his robes with her other, and never breaking eye contact as his body (and the lingering effects of her spells) began to repair the still-visible gashes from the snake.

After what felt to her like a few minutes, he drifted off into what she hoped would be a dreamless sleep. She looked up at the clock and realized she had been sitting there for over half an hour. Her mindset switched from nurse to auror as she quickly began placing enchantments on her house. _Protego maxima, muffliato, fianto duri_, to keep Voldemort out, others to keep Snape in. While she was worried about what would happen if Voldemort found out his murder had been thwarted, she was equally worried about what would happen if she had just saved a Death Eater only to have him return to the fray and claim more innocent lives. When she was sure both of these unacceptable outcomes were impossible, or at least as close to it as she could assure, she took a brief second to scribble a note and suspend it in midair over Snape's unconscious form as he slept.

She took one last second to make sure he was still breathing steadily. Looking down at the man she had seen every day for the last seven years, she couldn't help but notice that he looked different somehow. She wasn't sure if it was being this close to him, the near death experience he had just barely survived, or something she couldn't describe, but he looked different. Peaceful, the wrinkles by his eyes that had been created by the fear of the attack had receded. She gently brushed his long black hair out of his eyes and noticed the constant distain in his expression that had caused such unease in his students all but disappeared in unconsciousness, leaving him approachable, almost handsome.

Hearing herself think of Severus Snape as handsome, Hermione mentally shook herself and quickly stood up. People were dying at the hands of an army of death eaters and she was… going back to Hogwarts. Brushing off the tear she hadn't even noticed was on her cheek, she quickly dissapparated back to as close to the Hogwarts grounds as she could.


	2. Chapter 2: Awake

**Chapter 2: Awake**

After a few hours Snape finally regained consciousness. Before he could open his eyes he hesitantly took inventory of his injuries. He remembered the attack vividly. The feeling of the cut opening on his neck, the fangs of that horrid snake tearing into his flesh, the sensation of blood dripping out of his open wounds. And then the Dark Lord had disappeared. He vaguely remembered that Potter boy collecting his tears, those eyes, the sound of footsteps receding, trying to come to terms with his solitary end, and then the feeling of hands on his wounds. Soft murmering of quiet spells, and all the sudden the oddest sensation came over him. It was if time froze, but kept going all at once.

He had opened his eyes to try to find the source of the murmering. Light brown. His focus had expanded from a pair of beautiful light brown eyes, to a soft face, to the final recognition of the face to be that of Hermione Granger. Before his brain could seek answers to more important questions like what she was doing to him or how he had not yet succumbed to the snake's venom, he had momentarily wondered how she had aged so much in the months since he had last seen her. She had left the previous year a sixth year schoolgirl, yet the person softly whispering healing charms over his wounds was nothing other than a woman. In the haze of lost blood and coursing adrenaline, he could focus on nothing other than the light brown eyes.

Despite his fragile state, his proud nature, and the fact that he was being ministered upon by a student, he had mentally cried out in an involuntary legilimancy with all the primal fears flooding his mind. He had wanted to ask for help, for comfort, for mercy, for something he could not quite find through the murky mental fog, but mostly he had felt an overwhelming desire, no a need, not to be left alone. He had faced almost two decades of spying, darkness, lies, danger, death, and constant uncertainty by himself. Before that he had suffered the loss of his childhood love to at the hands of the leader of his tormentors. All by himself. And now, as he hovered on the brink of death, he was absolutely certain that he could handle no more isolation. He had clung to those light brown eyes like a single life raft that stood between him and whatever cold, dark ocean lay beyond death's doorway. Mercifully they had stayed locked on his until a sound distracted them both and the world quickly spiraled into darkness.

When the light had reemerged and the spinning of what must have been a hasty apparation stopped, he had opened his eyes to find his life raft right where he had left it. He had continued watching the light brown eyes of his caretaker as she murmered spells over him. He had also noted a warm comforting pressure on his wrist. His misty mind could only keep him tethered to consciousness by keeping locked on the eyes of his rescuer, until suddenly the kindness with which they shown was suddenly replaced by uncertainty. He had tried to nod his assent to whatever unspoken question they were asking, but wasn't completely sure if he managed actually to move his body. He had taken a brief pleasure in the relief in her eyes' response, but was then distracted as time in his body had suddenly started up again.

At first he hadn't known what was happening, but all questions were forgotten as the pain of the snakebites and the deep gash in his neck had come back with full force. After a fleeting moment of worry that his fragile hope for survival was nothing, he had felt the agony begin to ebb. His heartbeat had steadied and the pain of just breathing had eased into a deep and calming rhythm. His rational mind had clamored for him to focus on his breathing, take inventory of the status of his wounds, do something, anything, but in the end all he could do was stare at the soothing brown kindness of the focal points above him. The last things he had seen as the blackness of sleep had finally claimed him were the tears sliding down her porcelain face as she monitored his slowly strengthening pulse.

He wasn't sure how long he had been unconscious, or why he was so worried about what would happen when he opened his eyes, but he kept going over his memories of earlier that night to make sure they were not just a dream. The portions in which he was cared for by an ethereal version of a girl who had once been a student of his did not seem to have any passing acquaintance with reality, yet the still-throbbing pain in his neck and in various locations about his head and face convinced him that the attack had in fact been quite real.

Bowing a little while longer to his unexplained yet very real dread of what would happen when he opened his eyes, he used legilimancy -for what he promised himself would be the very last time- to peer into the minds of those he knew were key players in the battle currently raging at Hogwarts. He knew the Potter boy knew how to resist him by now, and after all their torturous practice sessions he had better, but he watched through the eyes of Narcissa Malfoy as the Dark Lord shot a killing curse at the Potter boy, yet for the second time he survived. He felt through the mind of Hagrid as Potter jumped out of his arms to duel once again. He felt the triumph of Neville Longbottom as he grabbed the sword of Gryffindor and destroyed the last horcrux. Finally, he used the sight of the Weasley boy to see the final destruction of the Dark Lord. He kept watching as Weasley turned to get a celebratory hug, but was immediately shunted back to reality at the image of her face.

He knew immediately that every part of the evening as he remembered it had been correct. She was real, and had saved him, and remained so far from the image he had of her as a young schoolgirl. Whatever had happened to her between leaving Hogwarts last year and returning for the battle had aged her into a fully-fledged woman. A fact, he noted with more than a little sadness, that should be not be a cause for relief but a cause for mourning. It should be, but he couldn't shake the unexplainable feeling of relief when he thought about her transformation, or when he thought about her in general. He knew from his intrusion into the thoughts of those fighting at the castle that the light brown eyes would not be there to anchor him when he finally opened his eyes, but he steeled himself for whatever reality awaited him.

It took a while for him to adjust to the brightness that assaulted him as he begrudgingly opened his eyes. His vision finally focused on what appeared to be a piece of parchment floating about a foot in front of his nose:

_"Please do not try to move. The house is fully protected from any unwanted intruders. As I am unsure of my healing skills and do not want you to reopen any wounds, I have immobilized you as a precaution. This will also keep you from getting out to join You-Know-Who if you are foolish enough to wish to do so. I will be back to check on you as soon as I can. Stay put. Rest. –Hermione"_

He couldn't help but smile as he read the words 'if you are foolish enough to do so". Only Hermione Granger would save and harbor a known Death Eater, bind them to what he could only assume was her bed, and then discuss it as calmly as if it was a decision of what to eat for supper. His brain then experimented with his limbs to confirm that, yes, he was in fact fully immobile. After straining briefly against the charm, he relaxed into the softness of the bed and shut his eyes again.

He knew from the scene in the forbidden forest that the Potter boy had seen his memories in the pensieve, which meant that by know the entire wizarding world knew…everything. Reality set in as he realized that his secret childhood love, confidentially cherished as it turned from a romantic love into an honor-bound mission to cancel out her sacrifice by clandestinely protecting the boy was now spread out for the world to see.

He expected to feel vulnerable, exposed, even violated. Instead, he felt only relief. For a decade he carried on his shoulders an unrequited love. That night in Godrick's hollow, as he held the lifeless body of the woman who died protecting the son she had with his rival, he had set down this love, but replaced it with a mission to repay her sacrifice by protecting her only living relative, the reason she chose to lay down her life; he had to protect the boy. Then, for the next 18 years he carried the even heavier burdens of secrecy, being a double agent, and spending his every waking hour safeguarding the progeny (and near-exact likeness) of his childhood tormentor.

Now that Voldemort was gone (he would never have to debase himself by saying 'Dark Lord' again) and his secret mission was completed, he would have expected to feel empty, but instead he felt peace. His love for Lily had already had time to refine itself into a deep respect and an awe of her bravery and dedication to her family. Since the day she married James he could no longer bring himself to think of her as a romantic object, but the qualities she seemed to possess in spades were those he so deeply feared he lacked. He had strived to carry on her legacy in hopes of becoming more like the Gryffendor girl who had once given him hope for the world. Now, his mission a success and it's existence known to the world, a fledgling hope began to grow that his former status as a Death Eater could someday be overlooked in light of his contribution to the demise of Voldemort. However, this flickering hope was immediately snuffed out by the thought that now that his status as a traitorous Death Eater was known, the remaining Death Eaters would all be hell-bent on seeking him out.

Wounds still aching with agony, reality far too grave to face, he resigned to closing his eyes and feeling the softness of the mattress beneath him. He smelled the faint but comforting scent of lavender and honeysuckle, smiling as he recalled the soft touch of the hands gently treating his wounds the last time he had experienced that scent. He drifted off, wondering if the room smelled that way due to her extended presence in it, or if she somehow derived her scent from something inside the room. And with that, the blackness claimed him again. He dreamt of healing hands and light brown eyes.


	3. Chapter 3: Of a Bad Situation

**Sorry for the previous version...for some reason FFN posted the HTML code form...All is well now.**

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**Chapter 3 – Of a Bad Situation**

She snuck away as soon as she could excuse herself from the crowd still lingering at the castle without drawing questions. She had listened with awe as Harry revealed the contents of Snape's memories to the exhausted yet still jubilant crowd of students, teachers, and friends engaging in what had to be one of the most exhaustive after-action rehashing in wizarding history. At first everyone had told their individual perspectives in small groups, but soon the groups had begun to combine into larger and larger packs of listeners around the key players in the battle. When Harry had begun telling about Snape's long and covert history as a double agent between Voldemort and Dumbledore, a hushed silence tiptoed across the smashed remnants of the great hall until not a sound could be heard but Harry's voice recounting Snape's unknown heroics.

Hermione's stomach had twisted with an emotion she had never before experienced when Harry revealed that Snape's true allegiance was against the Death Eaters, something in the back of her mind giving her quiet pats on the back for listening to her instincts that he was somehow worth saving. She experienced a small pang of what surely couldn't be jealousy when Harry and the others began speculating about Snape's feelings for Lily, but this unwelcome internal dispute was interrupted by the flood of questions that began to spring up.

Should she reveal what she had done? No. She wasn't sure why, but she was somehow certain he would not welcome the rush of attention (the praise of the people he'd secretly protected nor the criticism of his methods in doing so) that he would accrue by miraculously becoming the second person in wizarding history to survive a direct attempt on his life by Voldemort himself. With that decided, she needed to get back to him. As seconds turned to minutes, being away from her childhood bedroom and its current occupant went from a nerve-wracking inconvenience to a physical pain. As soon as the talk reverted back to small groups sharing war stories, she quietly walked out of the great hall and strided with increasing pace until she was far enough off the grounds to disapparate.

She was not sure what she was expecting when she got there, but every part of her breathed a sigh of relief when she saw he was still there, still breathing, and resting quietly. Taking advantage of his unconsciousness, she felt comfortable perching on the bed next to him to begin checking his wounds. To her immense pride, her novice healing spells seemed to have worked and his wounds were not only beginning to close, but seemed not to show any signs of the lethal poison she had initially removed from them.

After her initial diagnosis appeared favorable, she relaxed enough to allow her mind to drift off to the ever-growing stack of questions piling up in the back of her mind. As she pondered how she was going to explain the situation when he finally awakened and whether he would be grateful to have been saved or angered to have been involuntarily tethered to her bed during one of the most important conflicts of their time, the hand that had been checking the healing of the gash on his neck drifted upward and now gently stroked his cheek. The fingers that had been monitoring the ever-strengthening beat of his heart had snaked quietly up from his wrist to intertwine themselves between his long slender fingers. Having no shortage of thoughts to occupy her more-than-competent brain, she sat completely absorbed in thought, staring absentmindedly at the floral wallpaper. She was, in fact, so absorbed in thought that she didn't notice when his eyes slowly fluttered open.

Again, he came to before he dared open his eyes. At first he thought it was the lingering pseudoreality of some unremembered dream, but after a few seconds of evaluation, he was quite confident that he felt a warm, soft touch on his cheek. Unable fully embrace the hope for what his rational mind was revealing as the only possible source of this touch, he inventoried the rest of his body for sensation. He was immediately greeted by the lingering pain in his neck, shoulders, and chest. Pushing his inquiry past his torso and into his extremities he froze as he discovered his left hand to be gently intertwined with another set of soft, warm fingers. He lay quietly, allowing himself to relish the long-lost sensation and warmth of holding someone's hand. This time he dreaded opening his eyes not for fear of not seeing those soft brown eyes, but for the fear that by acknowledging he felt this touch would make it disappear for good.

He didn't want to think of her as his former student. He didn't want to deal with the idea that she and her friends had grown up thinking of him with a mixture of disgust and loathing. He couldn't fathom what could have happened to change her mental view of him so suddenly. He was even more reticent to admit that this was not the fist time his thoughts had viewed her in a different light. It had been glaringly obvious to all, from her first class at Hogwarts, that Hermione was special. Her encyclopedic knowledge, signaled by a constantly waving hand in the air whenever a question was asked (and often when it had not) was a sign to each professor that they were dealing with the kind of mind that was found but once in a generation.

Yes, he had known of her intelligence from the beginning. However, it was not until her sixth year that he had accidentally stumbled upon one of her books in the library. She must have left one of her late-night study sessions in so tired a state that she accidentally abandoned one of her books in the library. He had never been too compatible with the idea of a good night's sleep, so when he had noticed the book still laying on the table where she had previously been studying, his curiosity won out over his notions of professorial conduct and he had placed it quietly in his robes as he walked past the table on his way out.

Back in his quarters, he shoved aside his lingering guilt at stooping to such puerile activities and laid her book open on the table. It was the standard-issue sixth year transfiguration textbook, but in every margin, around every image, and on each spare page a neatly winding script marked alternative spells, different permutations, new applications of the existing material, and even spells that were clearly borne of personal experimentation rather than academic knowledge. His breath had hitched in his throat as he was forcefully reminded of his own sixth-year potions book. Without another thought for the fact that he should not be spending his nights immersed in the writings of one of his students, he poured through each page.

As the pages turned, he learned not only the degree to which he had underestimated the young witch's cleverness, but he got a never-before-seen glimpse inside her mind. Through spells on transforming abilities and competencies he learned more of her ambition. As he found more and more spells on transfiguring negative emotions he began to learn of her unhappiness. He had thought her to have a perfectly happy social life. After all, she was always seen with the Potter boy and seemed to have gained the affections of the youngest Weasley, but an intellect of her caliber still felt lonely. He smiled as he saw the rudiments of a spell that would transfigure works of literature so she could converse with the characters, a spell he had in fact spent months trying to perfect during his days at school. Page after page late that night transformed his image of her from an obviously bright Gryffendor standout to a companion from a different time, silently joined by the shared alienation created by a lack of social knowledge and abundance of every other kind of learning.

Since that night he strove not to treat her any differently, even making a point to dock points from Gryffendor to ensure no one would sense his change of heart towards her. However, this one night of insight into her private world had somehow joined him to her, at least in his mind. Now, lying immobile in her childhood room, unable to restrain himself from thinking that she was clearly a fully-adult witch, refined in the crucible of the events of the past year, he succumbed to the reticent admission that, for whatever reason, he did not want to let go of her hand. Ever. This was the first witch in a very long time with which he had felt an intellectual and personal connection and he did not want to let go of what he feared would be the last physical reminder of that connection.

Snap out of it, Severus. His injuries had apparently mended enough for his rational mind to regain control over his facilities. It does not matter how much of a connection you feel with this woman; it takes two in these situations and there is no chance of her reciprocating whatever foolish affinity you feel towards her. With a begrudging resolve to face whatever reality would appear when he did, he slowly opened his eyes.

The light brown orbs that had comforted him were still there, but they were obviously lost in thought. He took a brief second to appreciate the sight above him. Hair still disheveled from battle, she had ash from nearly-avoided curses smudged across her cheeks. Even covered in the reminders of a ferocious battle, she was undeniably beautiful. He felt a momentarily uncomfortable guilt for staring, but was reassured by the fact that he was in a full body bind and could not look away even if he wanted to. He most definitely did not want to, but he thought better of letting her catch him examining her face. His voice uncertain from a combination of injury and disuse, he breathed deeply and exhaled with soft, gravely words.

"Thank you."

The silk of his voice jerked her out of her thought. Eyes quickly darted to meet his. To his surprise, her fingers remained completely intertwined in his, even after she realized he was awake. She fought off the internal torrent of questions with which she wanted to bombard him. After a brief pause to search his eyes for the right answer, she simply answered,

"You're welcome. How are you feeling?"

"A great deal better than I should had you not intervened, I believe."

Too embarrassed to answer with continued grace, she defaulted to hurried muttering. "Professor, anyone in my place would have—"

"Severus," he interrupted.

She stopped mid-sentence, shocked. "Pardon?"

Too late to decide for the wiser, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"My students call me professor. Fully adult, former students, especially those to whom I owe my life, call me Severus." And with that it was done. He had officially surrendered up whatever shattered pieces of his soul remained in his possession and offered them up to do with as she wished. Not sure what to expect, he reopened his eyes. She was still there. In fact, a small smile had crept into her eyes. "Severus," she said, as if testing how the word would taste on her lips. As she finished speaking the small smile reached her mouth.

"I did as best I could with no time to prepare, but I was quite worried it wouldn't be enough. You gave me quite a scare…Severus."

There it was again. The sound of his name magically sweet on her lips almost distracted him from the subject at hand, but his intellectual curiosity prevailed. "You performed quite admirably, Miss Granger. In fact—"

Now it was her turn to interrupt. "Surely if I am to call you Severus it's only right that you should call me by my name as well?"

He had to swallow before proceeding, "Hermione." Somehow using her first name only served to deepen their eye contact. He took a moment to process the fact that she still had not broken the invisible bond between their gazes, before pressing on. "Hermione…even someone as skilled as you are at the fine art of self deprecation as you are should take a certain measure of pride in thwarting an attempted murder at the hands of Voldemort himself. If I may ask, what was the spell you performed? The first one, that is?"

There were so many things in that sentence for her to process. She elected not to examine the way her stomach flipped when he said her name, or the veneration in his voice as he described her, rather choosing to focus on the content of his final question. "I froze your blood. It wasn't a recognized spell, but I knew from my Girl Scout wilderness training that snake poison had to be removed before it spread throughout the body. Not knowing any actual healing spells, freezing your blood seemed like the only to prevent the spread until I could get the poison out." After running out of words, she exhaled nervously, worried for upcoming censure for having used him as a guinea pig for her invented spells.

"Brilliant." He paused for a moment. "Girl scouts?" he asked as an afterthought.

She couldn't stifle a laugh. "An organization for muggle children aimed at teaching them life skills."

God, he loved the sound of her laugh. He was able to maintain his façade both through effort and due to the lingering pain from his wounds. "When I regain the use of my limbs, remind me to send them an owl of thanks."

His restraining spell! She immediately began apologizing and explaining herself. After the fourth consecutive run on sentence without a breath, she was halted by the laughing smile that had danced its way into his eyes. After all her years in his class she would have assumed he was laughing at her, but she couldn't shake the eerie similarity between his expression and the look on Harry's face when watching Ginny do something he found particularly adorable. She took a breath to collect her thoughts and simplified her train of thought to a simple, "I was afraid if you woke up you might leave," she realized how this must sound and quickly added "and I wasn't sure how your wounds would fair if you moved around too much." She slumped into a disheartened silence, her eyes finally leaving his, shrinking down in a clear desire to hide from whatever response she anticipated.

Severus' face warmed as he saw through her attempts to pin her actions solely on her concern that he might reopen a wound and caught a quick glimpse of something more, an unnamed emotion was creeping into her features as he realized that she didn't want him to leave any more than he wanted to go. What the hell, he thought to himself. I've already thwarted death once tonight, why not push my luck a bit further. He gently squeezed her hand as he spoke, "I'm not going anywhere, Hermione."

Her eyes flickered up to meet his again. He continued, "…but I can't say I wouldn't welcome the use of my hands. I promise not to overdo it." Without looking away or releasing his hand, she reached for her wand with the hand that she realized had still been absentmindedly stroking his cheek. She wordlessly unbound him and held her breath as she waited to see his reaction.

Feeling his newfound freedom, he slowly stretched his limbs one by one, feeling the pain in each of his wounds as his skin stretched across them. When he was fairly certain in his diagnosis of his physical status, his first move was to slowly raise himself into a sitting position. He grunted in surprise as the pain far exceeded what he had been expecting. Hearing his groan, he saw the look of panic flit across her face, but he nodded to her, continuing his attempted ascent, until he finally reached a sitting position.

Any extraneous thoughts going through either of their minds were immediately silenced by the electric charge created in the proximity of their faces. Her breath hitched as she sat, enraptured by his dark eyes, unable to think or speak. His usually constant internal monologue also ground to a halt as he felt the almost magnetic pull towards her. Neither of them knew how long they sat there in what seemed to be the world's most electrically charged game of chicken before Hermione finally broke the silence.

"From the sound effects you just made in attempt to sit up, I'm going to venture a guess that you're not quite ready to go bounding off to fight the Death Eaters any time soon," she intoned grimaced in response, not welcoming the bleak reality her intended joke brought into his mind. "That decision might not be in my hands," he replied.

Feeling his mood change, she reached over and brushed his hair out of his face again. What is HAPPENING right now? She asked herself. How did they get to the place where she felt comfortable brushing the hair out of Severus Snape's eyes? Instead of shrinking away from her touch he actually seemed to lean into it, eyes narrowing slightly in pleasure. Desperately trying to remember what they had been talking about, her mind returned to the thought of Death Eaters attempting to attack her Severus. (When did he become 'her' Severus?) She quickly explained about her protective enchantments all around her house. She continued, "Plus, no one knows you're even here. In fact," she paused, "no one actually knows that you're still alive."

Her last thought stopped him in his tracks.

"You didn't tell anyone? What you did? That you brought me here?"

"No," she stated matter-of-factly.

"You didn't tell anyone that you stopped the death of a known Death Eater, saved his life, apparated him to your home, by yourself, and magically tethered him to your bed?"

"No," she admitted hesitantly, seeing the growing displeasure in his face.

"And, pray tell, why on earth not?"

"I don't know. I just sensed that it wasn't time to divulge that particular information to the general public. I thought you would be more comfortable keeping…private." She finished even more hesitantly than she began, dropping her eyes to her lap for a second time. She braced herself for the worst, but could never have braced herself adequately for his fingers under her chin, angling her face up to his. As she looked in his eyes she felt her insides melt, his touch the only thing keeping her tethered her from coming completely unglued. His speechless gratitude needed no words.

He stared into hers as long as he dared, but this time it was his turn to break the silence before…he wasn't sure what would happen if he kept staring into her eyes, but he was completely sure that she was not yet prepared for it. He didn't move, but quietly broke the unspoken tension threatening to incinerate them both.

"So if no one knows I'm alive, then the Death Eaters don't know I'm alive, which means I'm safe…until I set foot out the door. At which point I will be killed at their earliest convenience."

They both froze as the unspoken answer hovered over their heads like a cloud. She knew it had to come from her. He had already shown so much uncharacteristic honesty tonight, she was afraid he would revert back to the Severus Snape of her memories.

"Well, Voldemort being gone and all. I'm all out of horcruxes to chase and have no immediate plans. You could stay here. I am more than willing to make sure you're taken proper care of while you recover," she desperately searched his eyes to see if she had overstepped her bounds. To be safe she added, "You know, just until you're up to battling the forces of evil again."

And with that suggestion, he felt the last remaining fragments of the wall he had spent so long erecting around his carefully guarded heart began to crumble. He removed his hand from hers, occasioning a look of utmost worry and confusion on her beautiful face, but he immediately shocked her even further by utilizing his newly freed arms to draw her into the tightest hug he could comfortably manage and whispered his thanks into her lavender-scented hair.


	4. Chapter 4: The First Night

**Chapter 4 - The First Night**

Severus spent the day in a deep sleep. Hermione used the opportunity to catch up on all the reading she had not had the luxury of doing in their months of horcrux hunting. She magically levitated her favorite, most comfortable chair out of the living room upstairs into the corner of the bedroom. As Severus rested, she curled up under a blanket and tried to lose herself inside her dog-eared copy of _A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration: Professional Edition_. While she usually had no problem disappearing into a good book, she found herself getting distracted. She found herself reading the same paragraph for the third time, instead focusing on the even sound of Severus' breathing.

After a few hours of fractured attempts at reading, she glanced up at his still-unconscious form. _Screw it, _she surrendered silently to her inner id. Picking up her wand without leaving the chair, she used another levitation charm to scoot the chair from the corner of the room next to the bed. She took another stab at reading, but still found herself getting lost in thoughts of the man next to her. Slowly and without looking up from the book, she slid one hand across the arm of the chair and back into his outstretched palm. She held her breath for a few seconds, praying she didn't disturb his rest, but slowly exhaled when she heard the uninterrupted rhythm of his continued breathing.

Feeling the reassuring warmth of his hand, her mind disappeared without further resistance into the familiar escape of a good read. She only left his side to change books. Finishing her transfiguration book within the first few hours, she switched to the much more appropriate _Emergency Magical Medicine: From Scrapes to Breaks_, a thick tome detailing the A to Z of every considerable magical health emergency and how a trained mediwizard should approach each one. She learned to her great relief that the more dark magic was used to create an injury, the longer the recovery time would naturally be.

This came as a great consolation as, a full day later, Severus had not roused from his sleep for any considerable period of time. He had fallen back asleep almost immediately after accepting Hermione's offer to stay with her and disentangling himself from the enchanting smell of her embrace, during which he had finally determined that the intoxicating aroma of lavender which had distracted him every time he walked by her desk in his dungeon potions classroom, back in what seemed like a previous life, was in fact due to the lingering shampoo wafting out of her still slightly bushy hair.

When the afternoon light began to fade, about 12 hours later, Severus stirred for the first time. This came as a relief to Hermione who, despite the warning in her books, was beginning to worry about his extended unconsciousness. He opened his eyes with a look of terror on his face, but as soon as her eyes caught his in a reassuring gaze, gently squeezing the hand she was still holding as she read, the fear faded as quickly as it had come. They remained there, eyes locked in a wordless communion for a few minutes more, until sleep reclaimed him.

And thus the pattern was set. Hermione read peacefully in her armchair next to the bed, Severus waking every few hours. Each time he woke with fear that ebbed quickly away as soon as he saw her sitting by his bedside. Even through the night, when he woke he found her face, bathed in the light of her wand as she read. She was grateful that she didn't seem to feel tired, still feeling the lingering adrenaline from the massive battle the night before. She could not come to terms with the idea of releasing Severus' hand and going to sleep in another room, and though a voice somewhere deep in her head clamored for her to do so, she was nowhere near brave enough to occupy the same bed as her former potions professor.

He stirred again the next morning. Glancing at the digits on the overly-large muggle clock in the corner, he saw that it was almost seven thirty. Without moving his head, he looked in the direction that had previously held Hermione's face, but saw nothing. In a panic he began to sit up when he felt the resistance of her hand still in his. Turning his neck in an agonizing move that stretched his newly-mending wounds as far as he dared, he traced from her hand, up her slender arm, to the mass of curls that was her head unceremoniously resting on the face of the book she had been reading. From the light that was still needlessly glowing out of the wand in her other hand, now outstretched across her lap, he guessed that she had fallen asleep involuntarily some time in the dark hours of the night.

He managed to sit up the rest of the way without too much discomfort, pleased at the progress that his body had made in just one night. Still holding her hand, he wondered what to do next. This was definitely uncharted territory for him. Severus Snape did not sleep holding someone's hand. He did not have to worry about rousing someone with his movements. He did not take care of young witches while they slumbered. Yet these were exactly the things that he found himself doing. He carefully slid his hand out from hers and gingerly stood up to walk around to her side of the bed. He used the levicorpus charm to move her from on top of her book, over to the still slightly made side of the bed in which he had not been resting. He cautiously pulled her wand from her hand, the tip dimming as soon as it lost contact with her fingers, and placed it quietly on the bedside table next to her. On second thought, he marked the page in her book upon which she had been sleeping, and placed the book neatly next to her wand. Not wanting to disturb her further, he quietly picked up his own wand and tiptoed from the room.

She awoke with a start. Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the bright light, but when they did the pit of her stomach dropped. _Where was he?_ She fumbled for her wand. Finding it on the bedside table, she racked her brain for what had happened the past night. The last thing she remembered was sitting in the chair, reading (like normal) and holding the hand of one Severus Snape. _How could I be so stupid?_ She began her internal tirade against her past self. _I should go find him_. She was about to leap from her bed when the thought hit her like a brick. _He left because he didn't want to be here. Of course. Why would he?_

Pulling her knees up to her chest, she quietly began to sob. _Why did she do it? Why did she save a man whose dark secrets she could only fathom? _She knew why. Even her most self-pitying inner panic could not shake her conviction that it had been completely and unarguably the right decision to do what she did to save Severus. _But why did I bring him to my house? _Because you had nowhere else to go, reasoned whatever was left of her voice of reason. _Why did I hold his hand? Why was I unable to leave his side? Why am I so devastated that Severus Snape of all people is no longer in my house? _Crickets. Her voice of reason didn't seem to have an answer for that one. Having exhausted what remained of her inner control, she collapsed into a ball, closed her eyes, and finally allowed herself to feel the wave of emotion that had been building inside her for months.

Downstairs in the kitchen, Severus heard the first of Hermione's sobs. By the second the teakettle he had been filling was back on the counter with a clatter, by the third he was already halfway up the stairs, and by the time she took her first deep, tear-filled breath, he had burst in through the door and was cradling her gently in his arms. Feeling his arms draw her to his chest, she looked up in a mixture of surprise and fear, but already having opened the floodgates she could do nothing but dip her head against his chest and let him hold her as she let go of the last six months. He gently stroked her hair as she sobbed out the frustration of living from tent to tent, never knowing who was dying at home or if you were to be next. He rocked her back and forth as she cried for all the good friends, teachers, and fellow students she had seen slaughtered before her very eyes. Neither spoke as her sobs slowly began to dissipate, but he didn't let her go even as she dried her eyes on one of her sleeves.

_"You're still here." _She said matter-of-factly into the folds of robe on his chest.

_"I was making you tea," _he replied into the curls on the top of her head. _"I awoke to find you slumped over a disturbingly thick medical textbook I can only assume you were reading for my benefit, so, seeing that there is nothing wrong with my legs, I figured it was only fair for me to take care of you for a change. It seemed only fair given what you did for me."_

_"I thought you left,"_ she stated without emotion.

Usual Hermione would have elaborated. Usual Hermione would have overanalyzed the situation and tried to hedge her words so that he knew how much she wanted him to stay yet her precise words did not cross any boundaries of propriety or show too many of her cards. Usual Hermione was far to tired to put thoughts together, so the new Hermione pulled away from his body enough to glance up into his eyes, waiting for whatever came next.

She was pleasantly surprised to see a ripple of kindness cross his face, first into his eyes and spreading to his mouth. That was all she saw, as he quickly pulled her back into his chest. He again mumbled into the top of her hair, _"I already told you I'm not going anywhere. By your actions you demonstrated that I can trust you with my life. This puts you on a list of exactly two people, one of whom is no longer living. There is quite literally nowhere I would rather be. In addition, I have found myself quite massively in your debt. While I have no idea how I am going to rectify this situation, I figured that tea was an acceptable place to start."_

With every word, he felt the rigid muscles of her body begin to relax. By the time he finished talking, he felt her calm and relaxed against him. After a moment of silence in which he relished the feeling of her warmth in his arms and she let herself be calmed by the steady beat of his heart by her ear, she exhaled a deep and heavy sigh.

_"I think tea might be exactly what the doctor ordered."_

Smiling, Severus disentangled himself from her various limbs, stood up, and offered the still seated Hermione a hand. Seeing this old fashioned gesture, an involuntary smile crept onto Hermione's face. Seeing her reaction emboldened him just enough to keep hold of her proffered hand, intertwining his slender fingers into hers. As they started down the stairs, she pulled just close enough to him to rest her head delicately on his shoulder as they walked.


	5. Chapter 5: The Notebook

**Thank you for the reviews and favs/follows! I'll try to keep posting regularly as things are just getting started for Severus and Hermione.**

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**Chapter 5 - The Notebook**

Perched on opposite ends of the sofa downstairs, they sipped their tea in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Every once in a while she thought he was gazing in her direction, but his eyes moved elsewhere before she was ever able to confirm her theory. After circling around the swirling mess of thoughts in her head several times, she could leave the silence unbroken no longer.

"This tea is surprisingly excellent. However, I know the inferior quality of the tea my parents usually stock in our kitchen, so I'm not quite sure how you managed it." Inane small talk. She had wanted to initiate a conversation and, amongst the infinite universe of things that had happened in the last few days, she chose to talk about tea. Collect yourself, Granger, she thought, chastising herself.

"I have found that the subset of skills necessary to create a proper potion is quite correlative with that necessary for muggle cooking," he replied distractedly. She was relieved at the lack of the dripping distain had previously served as hallmarks of the Severus Snape brand, but was disappointed when no further conversation ensued. Having wasted the only opportunity to start a conversation she dared take, she leaned back onto her end of the sofa and sipped her tea quietly.

When she could tell he was done with his tea, she wordlessly got to her feet, took the tea cup out of his hand, and brought both cups into the kitchen to wash. When she arrived back at the couch, she found him stretched out across the sofa and sleeping peacefully. Not wanting to disturb him, she magically summoned a blanket and carefully placed it over him. Without thinking, she found herself again brushing the hair off his forehead as he slept. She then unceremoniously plopped herself down in her second favorite armchair, her first still up in her bedroom, and summoned the book she had been reading the night before.

The next few days passed in a similar manner. Severus slept on and off, mostly on, but in between would make tea for the two of them. Few words were spoken, save for brief exchanges on things like what food he felt he could stomach (his appetite was slow in reappearing) and whether his wounds needed more magical attention as they continued to heal. He was often so lost in thought that she could sneak longer and longer glances at him without fearing that he would catch her looking.

Piecing together the information from many stolen glances, she began to appreciate the nuances of his face. The anger that had been such a consistent presence in his expression had gone. She assumed it had dissipated when Voldemort disappeared for good, and with him Snape's burdensome double agent status and the need for him to consort with (and witness the acts of) Death Eaters. However, she would have thought there would be hints of relief or even happiness creeping into his expression to take the place of the anger, stress, and fear that used to play constantly across it. To her utmost dismay and growing worry, these emotions were only replaced by a mask of incredible, heart-wrenching sadness. At first she hoped that this would be temporary and that as he processed what had happened the sadness would lift, but it seemed quite the opposite. As days went by, he seemed to sink further and further into whatever tragic shadow was gripping him.

After a few days, they fell into a schedule. During one of Severus' afternoon rests, Hermione decided it would be good for her to get out of the house and clear her head. She didn't want to be gone too long, in case he woke up and needed her, so she decided to walk into town to visit the muggle grocery store and stock up for the next few dinners. As she was walking out she passed a bookcase by the door. A small black leather book stopped in her tracks. She paused to think for a few seconds, then grabbed a spare piece of parchment and scribbled a second note to Severus. She quietly put the note and the little leather book on the end table nearest Severus' sleeping head and tiptoed out the door.

He woke for the first time since he had been there to an empty house. He chuckled internally at the strangeness of how quickly he had grow accustomed to her company. He had lived practically his entire life on his own. In childhood he quickly learned that staying quietly in his room was far preferable to dealing with the drunken slurs directed at him by his father. As soon as he escaped to Hogwarts, he obviously preferred solitude over the torments of James Potter and his loyal group of followers, but he also liked being his own company over partaking in the loud, cruel conversations of McNair, Yaxley, and the crew of Slytherins that would eventually become death eaters. As a professor, he took pride in finding solitude even in the midst of a large crowd of students. _Thirty some years of practice, undone in days by one Gryffendor. _He made a mental note to get his head checked when he was able to show his face in public once more.

However, sane or not, he still felt the tangible unease her absence left within him. He looked around to find something to fill the void, a book maybe, when his eyes came across the familiar curls of handwriting on a piece of parchment on the end table. He grabbed it quickly enough to occasion a mild complaint from several of his healing wounds, but ignored the pain and began to read.

_Severus,_

_Seeing as we are running out of food, I took a quick trip to the muggle supermarket. I shouldn't be gone long._

_ Hermione_

_P.S. A number of studies have been done on surviving traumatic experiences. All of the leading experts agree that talking to someone is an important part of the healing process. I know you are not yet comfortable talking to me about your personal history, so I thought maybe this journal could serve as a temporary outlet. Please give it a go. A professor such as yourself should know how unwise it is to ignore the suggestions of empirical research._

Leave it to Hermione to write a not with a post script longer than the message itself. He picked up the leather bound journal and examined it. It was obviously not magical in the slightest. He even saw the barcode sticker that remained from the muggle store in which it had been purchased. After having seen the diary of Tom Riddle years back, the muggle origins of the thing were actually greatly reassuring. _Diaries are for schoolchildren_, he remarked snidely to himself, tossing the book back on the table. He stood up and began perusing the bookshelves for something suitable to read, but something kept pulling his attention back to the little leather book on the table. Finally, with a heavy sigh that mixed resignation and self-condemnation, he sat down on the couch, conjured a quill, and began to write.

When he heard the key turn in the lock, he had only enough time to shove his quill into the book and throw it down on the table, hastily feigning interest in the mediwizard textbook Hermione had left on the coffee table in front of him. As she entered the room, arms laden with more grocery bags than a woman of her size should carry at once, she glanced quickly at the book, up at Severus, and progressed into the kitchen without saying a word.

In expression of his silent gratitude for not asking him about the journal and also of his contrition for spending the last few days in quasi-silence, he joined her in the kitchen and, for the first time in days, was the one to initiate the conversation.

"Please tell me you used a levitation charm to lighten your load from all of those bags," he offered.

_"I've been carrying heavy groceries since before I knew I was a witch." _She tried to keep her response brief, not wanting to get her hopes up that just as she had accepted his silence the status quo would change.

He heard the hesitance in her tone and was reminded how uncomfortable extended periods of silence were to those unaccustomed to it. Full of a deep sorrow for putting this wall between them and causing pain to the woman who had quite literally saved his life, he tried again.

"What did you get for dinner?" he asked meekly.

"So we're talking now?" she asked without sarcasm or anger. Her eyes simply bored into him, with a look not unlike that he used to see when he delayed giving her the grade she had received on an exam.

"Yes, well I'd like to… to try," he faltered as he contemplated how best to phrase the thoughts racing through his head. "You discerned correctly that I am not yet prepared to go into some matters of a more personal nature." He stared into her eyes trying to divine what her thoughts were, cursing himself for having disavowed the practice of legilimancy.

"Then we talk about the weather?" she asked, still with the probing look she had when trying to understand a very complex issue.

"No, well yes…How should I…" he couldn't remember the last time he had this much trouble getting a thought out. "I thought that maybe we could ease into it. Beginning with the topics that have nothing to do with recent events and work our way from there?" He inventoried her face again, searching for a hint of her response.

A deep, yet satisfied sigh. "Yes, I believe I can do that." She conceded, realizing with a frown just how frightening it was to open herself up to hope for more than the silence she had been experiencing. "To answer your question, I figured I would cook you the lasagna recipe my mother always prepared when I was under the weather as a child. She didn't have very large of a range as a chef, but the dishes she did cook she cooked well."

Severus smiled and sank down into one of the chairs by the kitchen table. If talking was necessary to ensure the happiness of the witch who had saved his life, then he was more than willing to give it his best effort. Besides, talking to her was already more comfortable than talking to anyone else in his life. Not a man of many friends, he would have to get back into the habits of human interaction. She's worth it, intoned some uninvited voice from the back of his consciousness. Silently agreeing but not wanting to hear any more of what that particular voice had to say at the moment, he returned to the matter at hand.

"So what are your parents like?" he asked as she continued to put away groceries.

"Well, my mother and father met when they were in their mastery to become dentists, so…" he leaned back and let her voice wash over him. For the first time in what he knew to be a very long time, he smiled at the thought of listening to someone else's personal history and stories. Whatever was happening would definitely be a new chapter for Severus Snape.


	6. Chapter 6: The List

**Chapter 6 - The List**

****"The whole thing?" Severus asked with an amused smile.

"In its entirety. Every word." Hermione couldn't stifle a giggle.

"And why, pray tell, did this seem like a good idea?"

"Well, I was only four years old at the time, and it was the first time I had been allowed to take a book out of the library, and I so did not want to give it back, so copying it over seemed like the only prudent course of action." He continued smirking at her while she laughed at her childhood foibles, but after the last few days she knew to interpret it as a smirk of endearment, not as an insult.

Since she had succumbed to her inner Gryffendor and forced Severus to begin talking to her, they had hardly stopped talking. He had learned all about her muggle childhood, the day she found out she was a witch, her relationship with her parents, and (what surprised her most) he was most interested in the little, inconsequential details that no one had ever even bothered to ask about, not to mention to find interesting.

And so days passed, lots of tea was drunk, many stories were told, and she became more and more comfortable around this new Severus who seemed at times a completely different person than she had envisioned him to be as the swooping, black-robed, potions master she had known (and partially feared) at Hogwarts.

Much to her surprise, he had slowly started to open up about his childhood as well. She had listened with horror as she learned how his horrible father had treated both Severus and his mother. He regaled her with the stories of his exploits at school, some of which would have made even Fred and George Weasley proud. After a little time, he even began to open up about the events at Hogwarts that had led to the end of his friendship with Lily and the beginning of his association with the dark side.

However, he had yet to mention anything that happened after Voldemort returned to power back in her fourth year. She was careful not to press him, but she had so many questions that were fighting to get out. Even so, she practiced the very un-Gryffendor skill of patients, telling herself that he would open up if and when he was ready. She did note with pleasure that whenever she was otherwise occupied, he would usually gravitate towards the little leather notebook she had given him. On some occasions she would walk in on him scribbling away like his life depended on it, other time she would find him simply staring at the same page for what seemed like hours on end.

A week after the final battle at Hogwarts had occurred, they were sitting at dinner when Pigwidgeon made another one of his not-so-smooth landings in the middle of the table, almost knocking over the large pitcher of lemonade Severus had brewed for the occasion.

"This is the third one. Pretty soon Ron and Harry are going to come looking for me if we don't figure out some way to respond." Severus was silent for a few minutes, seemingly pondering how to respond to Weasley's owl. When he finally spoke it was with a look of far-off sadness in his eyes.

"If you had it to do over again, are there any parts of that night in which you would choose to change your actions?" A shocked Hermione closed her mouth as soon as she realize she was, how would Professor Snape of old describe it? Gaping like an idiot. Mouth closed, she responded honestly.

"There are many outcomes I wish I could change, but none tied directly enough to any one action that I could know which to change and how." Another long silence. Hermione studied Severus' face, trying to glean either how he had arrived at this question from Pig's sudden entrance or what he was thinking about her answer. After waiting for a response, she realized none was coming. Before she could think the better of it, she tentatively asked, "…is there something you wish you could change?"

Severus quickly stood up and wordlessly walked out of the kitchen. _Uh oh_. Hermione thought. _Did I just plunge us back into the silent phase?_ She replayed the conversation in her head, but didn't think her question had crossed any major lines (_he started it, after all, with his question)_, but yet again, he had been so unwilling to speak about recent events that she was afraid this might be two steps back for whatever fledgling relationship they were forming.

Just as she was really beginning to kick herself, he reemerged into the kitchen carrying a determined expression and his little black notebook. He stopped to the side of her and seemed to consider his choice thoroughly before he opened to a page about halfway through the now almost completed notebook. He gently placed the open book on the table in front of Hermione and began carrying the plates from the table to the sink, where he took out his wand and began charming the plates to clean themselves. After the dishes were clean and put away, he walked silently by Hermione and out into the living room.

Hands shaking with nerves, Hermione peered down at the little book in her hands. The page to which he had opened contained not paragraphs, but a bulleted list. She glanced down the page and quickly gleaned it was a list of things that happened in the last year relative to the final battle with Voldemort. Some were quite cryptic ("transportation"), while others listed only names (she noted Neville Longbottom had a place on the list, as did Ginny Weasley). She tried to make sense of it, but eventually rose out of her seat and sought explanation in the living room.

When she turned the corner to see the man sitting on the couch, she saw on Severus' face the grimmest look she had ever witnessed. It seemed as if he had so long passed the point at which a normal person would have broken down his face could no longer register any more sorrow. Before she knew what she was doing she had knelt in front of him and had both of his hands in hers. She looked imploringly up into his face and was met with a look that was either pleading or grieving, she could not tell which.

"What does that list mean?" she whispered, as if the subject was less upsetting if not spoken out loud. He gripped her hands as if the question provoked actual physical pain, yet said nothing. Wanting somehow to comfort him, yet not knowing how, she bowed her forehead down to rest on their clasped hands. She stayed there, willing her strength to him through their physical connection. After several of the longest minutes of her life, he finally spoke.

"Albus credited my actions in the war to my love for Lily. At first, he was entirely correct. I loved Lily Evans completely from the moment I set eyes on her." _Why he telling me this? _Hermione's insides squirmed with a very unwanted emotion, but she fought to keep her face neutral as he continued. "But then Lily Evans became Lily Potter. She made the choice of what kind of man she wanted to be with, and I clearly was not that man. Slowly, painfully, I had to accept her choice because on some level I knew I had made too many wrong choices to deserve to be her choice. I got over her romantic rejection, but when she was murdered I couldn't shake the feeling that _had_ I been that man, the one she deserved, and had she chosen me, I would somehow have been able to protect her. That is why I vowed to protect Harry. I hoped that if I could save Harry, I would somehow redeem myself in the cosmic order of things. I wanted to see if I could be 'that man' that actually would have deserved her."

He took a deep, haunting breath before he continued. "A clean slate is, in my opinion, one of the rarest and most magical things in the world. Even with whatever role I played in keeping Harry alive last week… I had made my peace with dying to save Harry, exchanging my life for hers. This was my plan. I could never imagine my slate being wiped clean, but if I could make up for her sacrifice… It would be a noble enough way to go."

He paused long enough that Hermione felt brave enough to question, "I still don't understand." He looked lost. She desperately sought some way to bring him any measure of comfort. "Go on, Severus." She hesitated momentarily before saying his name, still uncomfortable with the informality, but hearing the way his name sounded on her tongue gave him just enough fuel to continue.

"When you found me in the boathouse, I was in the middle of living out the death I had so long expected. I had given Potter the memories that paid my debt to Lily. I was content to go peacefully into the night." He paused. She squeezed his hands, silently urging him to continue. "You, Hermione," he lingered across the word, saying it like a prayer instead of a name "altered my plans. Not only did you allow me the opportunity to live, but when I awoke holding your hand, it was the first time in a very long time I actually _wanted_ to live."

Her heart beat in doubles hearing him say this. This was the first either of them had done anything to acknowledge their physical contact. She gripped his hands even harder, eyes imploring him to continue. "However intrigued I was by this new development, every time I looked at you I was reminded that I still am not that man. The man a girl like Lily…or a woman like yourself…chooses." Hermione's entire body raged in protest to this last statement, but something in his eyes warned her not to interrupt.

"When you gave me that book, I didn't intend to write in it as you intended. I'm not sure when I even started, but it turned out, as your muggle therapists might suggest, to be an incredibly helpful exercise. I realized that if I am ever to get…what I want…" the loaded tone in his voice spoke mountains and made her heart rate climb even higher "then I must be that man." He could tell by her expression she still didn't understand.

"The list is the things I regret. The things that I wish I could change. The things that, were they removed from my history, might turn me into the kind of man…" he took another breath as if to say more, but seemed to think the better of it. His eyes dropped to his lap and she could tell he had finished. Unable to control herself, she reached up with one hand and stroked his cheek. He leaned into the warmth of her hand, but the sadness didn't leave his eyes as they met hers.

"You are already the bravest man I know, Severus." He placed his slender fingers over the hand that had now come to rest on his cheek and closed his eyes as he spoke. "That list is to serve as my reminder that I do not deserve you…your praise." _Excellent cover up_, she thought ruefully before returning her attention to the matter at hand. "Severus, you have done more good in the last year than most wizards do in a lifetime. Can't that be enough to earn you my _praise_?" She stressed the last word to let him know his hidden meanings were not so hidden. He smiled, but she could tell he was not so easily swayed.

He felt her mood change in an instant, as if she had just figured out the answer to some complex mathematical equation and was in a hurry to test her new theory. "Are you saying that this list is the only thing keeping you from pursuing…what you want?" she asked eagerly.

"In not so many words," he replied, cautiously eyeing her to surmise what new plan had been hatched in that lovely Gryffendor brain of hers.

"Come with me," she said. And without hesitation or another word, she grabbed his hand and practically dragged him upstairs.


	7. Chapter 7: The Napkin

**Chapter 7 - The Napkin**

"You had us all fooled, Miss Granger." Severus said through a sardonic smile, looking down at the object in Hermione's hands. "There I was thinking it was Potter who kept dragging you into trouble," he paused for effect, "when _you_ were the most egregious rule breaker of the bunch." While his words sounded cutting, the look in his eyes pointed to an emotion completely different. In Hermione's interpretation, it came closest to a look of pride. She reveled in finally having been able to surprise Severus the super spy.

"I thought, Severus," she emphasized his name as if in reprimand for having regressed to calling her Miss Granger, "that a propensity towards rule breaking was on of the only shreds of common ground between Gryffendor and Slytherin. Plus," she emphasized the word with a gentle poke in one of the few uninjured areas of Severus' chest, "you haven't even heard my plan yet, so hush."

For once, Severus was silenced. _I could definitely get used to this woman._ Severus thought before he could stop himself. He had only experienced the side of Hermione after she had been apprehended breaking the rules. Being present for the plotting phase of things was, he admitted to himself, greatly amusing.

"You say this list is what keeps you tethered to the past. Keeps you from moving on." She continued, trying not to let the end of her sentence drip with the loaded meaning she wanted to place there. "This is our way to fix whatever's on that list." She gestured to the small golden charm hanging from the chain in her hands. "But I'm still not entirely certain what each item means. You will have to do some explaining there. Take this one, for example," she gestured to one of the items on the list, "what does 'Ginny Weasley' mean?"

She finally paused and took the breath that had been mysteriously absent as she went from sentence to sentence without pausing for air. Severus sighed, knowing that this flight of folly would eventually lead nowhere, but as her enthusiasm was so infectious he decided to humor her. Taking another deep breath, he began to explain.

"Last school year, while you were out hunting for horcruxes, Hogwarts changed a great deal. As headmaster I had the duty to protect my students, but as an undercover Death Eater I was unable to do so. Had Voldemort let me run the school by myself I could have walked a thinner line between my cover as his faithful servant and my actual duties to protect the school, but I was not so fortunate." He paused as if watching a painful montage of events. "The Carrows were brutal. They were merciless and cruel, even by Death Eater standards. I tried to protect students as best I could, but there were instances where intervening would have tipped them off as to my true loyalties. Sacrifices had to be made. Innocents were hurt. I am afraid Ginny Weasley was one of the students I was unable to protect."

He could see the wheels begin to turn under the bushy curtain of her hair. He tried to step ahead of her thoughts and catch her before she got too far in the wrong direction. "You know, Hermione," electricity shot through her stomach as he said her name, "that any use of the time turner, especially that far back might alter the present in very upsetting ways. We could accidentally upset the balance and create" he shuddered slightly, "a very undesirable future."

He expected resistance. He expected promises of caution. He did not expect the almost self-satisfied smile he saw spreading across her face. "I've actually got that one covered," she said smugly. "If anything goes wrong, if anything gets changed for the worse, I hereby decide," she sounded as if she was addressing the universe, "that I will go back and leave a very explicit warning sign for us not to attempt this. I will put a note…let's see, somewhere safe…inside my mother's jewelry box. I will go back to before the change, hide a note for us to find, so we never attempt to make a change in the first place, which is actually the second place." She smiled again, a radiant, cat-that-ate-the-canary smile.

He had to hand it to her. That actually sounded like a sound safety check. "If you're quite finished patting yourself on the back, would you like to take me to check if we are considering destroying the wizarding world as we know it?" As she stood up, she glared her unspoken challenge at him with a look of pure determination mixed with mild amusement. _I haven't enjoyed myself like this in ages._ Severus was careful not to let his enjoyment show on his face.

He followed her with long strides as she practically jogged down the attic stairs and into her parents' bedroom. She entered a fairly large closet and began rummaging under a pile of old sweaters. "Key," she said as an explanation as she dug out a little silver key and unlocked the top drawer of the dresser. She pulled out a little wooden box. Opening it gingerly, an enchanting tune Severus thought he had heard but couldn't place began to play. However, before he could pinpoint the melody, both of their attention was drawn to a little white muggle napkin placed on top of the selection of rings inside the box. Hermione, still smiling but now with wonder, presented the box to Severus.

"Would you like to do the honors?" He slowly removed the napkin from the box as if it would explode with any sudden movement. He flipped it over and his mouth dropped open. What he recognized as his own penmanship was scrawled across the napkin. "Listen to her." Even more surprising was the text below it. In what was now easily distinguished as Hermione's neat writing, he read the words "…and they all lived happily ever after." They both froze as if carved in stone. They both sat quietly, rereading the two short lines as if preparing for an exam on the material. Hermione's smugness had disappeared in the face of her utmost shock.

"What's the Corinthia?" Severus asked, finally breaking the silence.

"It's a muggle hotel by Whitehall Palace, actually quite an expensive one," Hermione muttered, not taking her eyes off the napkin. "_That's_ what you noticed?" she asked. He didn't answer, not knowing what to say. They stood a few minutes longer, each pondering the ramifications of what they were seeing. Finally, Severus placed the napkin back in the jewelry box, placed it back in the drawer, and returned the key to its hiding place. Turning to a still-stunned Hermione, he looked her in the eyes with an intensity she had never before witnessed. "Okay, what next?"

They each had a cup of tea and a notebook in their lap. He was in his normal spot on the couch and she was occupying the seat next to him so they could compare notes. Severus was reading her scribbled notes over her shoulder as she flipped feverishly through a heavy book of spells. "Got it!" she proclaimed, almost making Severus jump. "That should be simple enough for me to perform. And you're sure it will block the curse in question?" he asked, now peering at the paragraph to which she was eagerly pointing.

"Yes, if cast preemptively and the curse follows within ten seconds, this will absorb the curse, neither letting it rebound nor reach its target. It says it's sort of like a sponge." He reread the paragraph she was indicating and nodded in agreement. He couldn't believe a plan had materialized so quickly. He jotted down the spell on the messy timeline they had created after a careful review of the memories he had rehoused from her head into a make-shift pensieve, still resting in the middle of the coffee table. "So that's it? We're ready?" she asked nervously. He was amazed as well, but after double checking the calculations he nodded his assent.

They both moved their books onto the table and stood up. As she walked to the mantle to retrieve the little gold hourglass that had been watching them work, Severus began to quiz her. "And you remember your charm, yes?" She rolled her eyes, "Yes, Severus. I remember my charm. I practiced the wandwork until I was blue in the face. I also remembered to send Pigwidgeon back with a message that we would come visit the Burrow at seven o'clock tonight. Well, I didn't mention you. That will just have to be an unexpected surprise." He groaned internally, "if they allow me to set foot in the house…" she cut him off with a hand on his shoulder. "They will. They will welcome you with open arms. Especially if all goes according to plan. Now are you ready?"

She stepped close enough to him to throw the thin golden chain already around her neck over his as well. The chain, only just long enough to fit both of them, pulled him in so tightly she was pressed to his chest. Her breath left her as she felt every part of her body tighten at the contact with his form. She looked up into his eyes to find them burning dark with a fire she hadn't seen before. She noted that the palpable electricity between them wasn't allowing him to breathe either. They remained frozen. He couldn't find the willpower to pull away, but feared he would be incinerated if he dared get any closer.

"Focus" he breathed, his silky voice lower than she was used to hearing it. "Focus" she exhaled her repetition, not moving an inch or dropping her eyes. A second later she seemed to internalize the word she had just uttered and broke the spell by looking down at the hourglass in her hands. "Cloak on?" she asked. He was still amazed Potter had given her his invisibility cloak. She had explained that after everything he had gone through he wanted nothing to do with any of the Deathly Hallows, but Severus could not imagine voluntarily parting with such an invaluable magical object.

He pulled the cloak over both of them, wrapping one arm around her waist to secure that the cloak covered their bodies completely and stayed put. When she was sure they were covered completely, she began to turn the little hourglass. As she finished the last turn and the world began to spin backwards, he apparated them both out of the room.


	8. Chapter 8: Ginny Weasley

**Chapter 8 - Ginny Weasley**

At seven o'clock on the dot Hermione stepped back to Severus' side after knocking on the door of the Burrow. She wasn't sure why she was so nervous, after all their mission had been a complete success. Maybe the idea of showing up at the door with not one, but two supposedly-dead wizards had something to do with it… Whatever the reason, her hands were trembling at her sides. She and Severus stared straight ahead, but the butterflies in her stomach momentarily surged then actually subsided as she felt his fingers intertwine around her own.

As Molly Weasley opened the door, her face lit up when she saw Hermione, but froze in fear when she saw Severus. Mrs. Weasley whipped out her wand, causing Hermione to shift her body between Severus and Molly, but it was Severus who spoke. "Don't be afraid, Molly. Put down that wand, let us come in, and we'll explain everything." She searched Hermione's face for reassurance and, seeing Hermione's nod of encouragement, slowly lowered her wand.

Suddenly comfortable once inside the familiar entryway of the Burrow, Hermione took off her coat. "Is everybody here?" she asked briskly. She was answered by a loud shout of "Hermione!" as Harry ran in from the kitchen and gave her a huge hug. She gave an awkward wave to Ron, still weary of him after the last conversation they had had .

Between the end of the battle and when she returned home to check on Severus, Ron had pulled her aside and tried politely to explain that the kiss they shared in the chamber of secrets was simply a heat-of-the-moment thing. She had been momentarily hurt by the nonchalance with which he dismissed her, but after a few minutes of reflection afterwards as she helped Professor McGonagall clear up some of the rubble she had realized how little the two of them actually had in common. Add that to the fact that she had been pining over him for the better part of the last three years without any real sign of the emotional maturity necessary to have a real relationship and she considered it to be the proverbial last straw. In a way she was relieved to finally have a concrete answer in a relationship that had been so nebulous for so long. She hoped that, in time, they would be able to go back to the friendship they had enjoyed before the angst of their teenage years made things uncomfortable.

Seeing Ron's smile at her awkward wave gave her hope that their previous friendship could be revived after all. As Harry took the seat next to Ginny at the kitchen table, Hermione greeted her, George, and Mr. Weasley. All small talk froze as Severus quietly entered the room behind her. Sensing his nervousness, she quietly put a hand on his arm as she addressed the Weasley clan.

"Obviously, there are some things about the night of the battle that haven't yet become public knowledge." She paused, looking around for a sign of how to continue. It was Harry's voice that came to her rescue.

"Have a seat, Professor," Harry said, in a tone far more respectful than he had used throughout his entire academic career with the man. Obviously, Snape's role in defending Harry throughout the years and in the ultimate demise of Voldemort had created a great deal of goodwill for him in Harry's mind. Severus pulled out a chair, but offered it to Hermione, who sat down blushing slightly. As Severus pulled out a chair for himself and sat down, Hermione quickly explained the sequence of events that led to Severus' survival and how he had been recovering in the safety of her parents' muggle neighborhood.

"That explains why you were out of touch for so long," Ron said. Hermione couldn't interpret his tone, but she hoped it was surprise not jealousy tampering his enthusiasm.

"Yes," she responded. "Severus and I have been working on a bit of a project together." Hermione glanced up at Severus, who was gazing Harry with a look on his face Hermione could not identify. She saw, however, out of the corner of her eye when Ginny's surprised face mouthed '_Severus?'_ at her. Her face couldn't suppress a fraction of a smile, but seeing Ginny's red-rimmed eyes, no doubt from the emotional week the Weasley family had been having, Hermione's thoughts were catapulted back to the first day when Severus had explained his list to her.

"I know you think these are things that can be remedied, but it's not that simple. I know that you are aware of the potentially fatal consequences that can come from foolishly tampering with the past. I was, in fact, there when Professor McGonagall gave you the lecture back in your third year." His silky voice was stern with confidence as he made his case. However, in the past few days Hermione had gotten to know her former potions master much better and this enabled her to stand her ground with him as they discussed.

"I'm not suggesting you go back in time and stand between her and the Carrows. If you would just _listen_…there is a more logical way to go about this." Surprised by her moxie, he gestured for her to continue in a mock bow, an amused half-smile on his face. "The things Ginny suffered at the hands of the Carrows were horrible, but she lived through them and is actually quite proud of her work with Dumbledore's Army." Hermione had filled Severus in on her side of everything that had happened from the time she set off with Harry and Ron to find the horcruxes through the final battle. "She wouldn't want that to be taken away from her. If you want to do something to right some kind of perceived wrong against her, you need to fix something she would actually _want_ to be different."

In the last few days he had spent more time with Hermione than the past few years put together. He was pleasantly surprised to find that her intellect was not, as he had previously thought, simply an aptitude for absorbing and regurgitating facts. As they talked and he learned more about her personality and how her mind worked, he realized she was every bit as bright as the other professors had made her out to be. She was quick to make connections that others might miss, and she had a predisposition towards questioning accepted facts that he so tried to cultivate in his Slytherin students. He even found himself growing fond of how, when overwhelmed by the excitement of a new idea, she devolved into incourageable bouts of run-on sentences, often without pausing to breathe.

"What single event would Ginny most want to have rewritten?" Hermione asked poignantly. They both stared at each other, knowing the obvious answer before the question was even asked.

"Given the proper preparation," Severus spoke, dark eyes flashing with intent, "that might be something we could actually accomplish…"

"I should mention that my survival, as well as the results of Hermione and my latest undertaking should remain, for the moment, confidential. Before we go any further into the details," Severus' silky voice floated in the stunned silence that filled the Burrow's kitchen, "I would like to apologize to you, Miss Weasley, for the events that came to pass this last year at Hogwarts. Though by now you know that I was in no way aligned with the practices of the Carrows, it is by no means an excuse for allowing any student to suffer such acts within the gates of Hogwarts under my supervision." His dark eyes rested on the table, not daring to see the reactions to his words. "I am truly sorry."

The silence had somehow become even heavier as everyone sought in vain for a response to what he had said.

"Why so serious, everybody?"

Hearing the unexpected voice, six heads whipped towards the door.

"Fred?" George's voice shook with a cocktail of emotions.

"Geez, what's a man got to do to get a hug around here?" With this confirmation of identity that only the airy pith of a Weasley twin could give, the room exploded. Mrs. Weasley burst into tears, Ron, Harry, and Mr. Weasley sat open mouthed as if in shock, Ginny knocked over her chair and launched herself sobbing into her brother's arms, and George, taking the longest to get from the far end of the table to the door, wrapped both of his siblings in his arms and lifted them both off the floor in one big bear hug. As Fred made his way around the table, giving hugs and shaking hands, the sobbing Ginny still clinging to his side, Hermione slowly reached under the table and grabbed Severus' hand, giving it a small squeeze as Mrs. Weasley covered Fred in kisses.

After the clamor had died down and Fred was wedged tightly between Mrs. Weasley and the only slightly calmed down Ginny, George finally spoke up. "So you two apparently have quite a story to tell." He aimed his words at Severus, but Hermione, sensing his discomfort with the rush of emotion and the number of expectant faces aimed in his direction, was the one to speak.

"While he was recovering, Severus found a number of things that had happened in the last year with which he could not seem to make his peace. There are always casualties of war, but there were some that seemed…intolerable." She paused, not sure how best to proceed. Severus finally found his voice and continued.

"Given her apparent affinity for rule-breaking, a trait I assume she developed due to the influence of these two," he gesture at Harry and Ron, "Hermione volunteered to assist me to right some of these injustices." He finished as if that explanation would be completely sufficient and the rest would be obvious.

"But how exactly did you do it?" George asked.

Hermione blushed. "After the battle Harry had given me his dad's old cloak, and I never quite returned my time turner after we used it to free Sirius. After a _load_ of planning and research, we found a spell that would shield Fred from the explosion and a charm that would put him into a long-term sleep. We couldn't have him awake because it could have changed history, and we couldn't well have his body disappear, so we let him sleep until you left him at the Coroner's Department at the ministry and then we snuck him out and woke him up."

A stunned silence again stretched out across the table, a silence only Fred could break. "So given that I have, for all extents and purposes, been dead for a week, do you think I could have some food?" And with that, the tension broke and the family began to function once more. Mrs. Weasley began fixing what looked like every piece of food in the house, Fred, Ginny still tucked under his arm, was immersed in conversation with George and Ron, while Mr. Weasley came over and began questioning Severus about his miraculous survival.

Harry stood up and plopped himself down in the seat next to Hermione. Covered by the dull roar of the recently reunited Weasleys, Harry spoke to Hermione in quiet tones.

"Since when are you and Snape on a first name basis?" he asked.

"He hasn't been our professor for over a year now, Harry," her blush undermining the credibility of her answer.

"Come on, Hermione. We've been friends for almost a decade. And you were holding hands under the table. What's going on with you two?" Her blush deepened.

"To be perfectly honest, Harry, I don't even know. It's nothing like what you're thinking, I mean, at least I don't think it is. It's just…" she paused for a second to disentangle herself from her mess of words. "He was unconscious for so long, and I didn't know when he would wake up, or even if he would. I just kind of held his hand because that's what you do when people are in the hospital. I couldn't do anything else to feel like I could comfort him."

"Plus," Harry added, "I bet he's not nearly as scary when he's knocked out."

Hermione felt a rush of gratitude to Harry for lightening the mood "Much." .She let out a small giggle. "I don't know. I was holding his hand when he woke up and he didn't hex me or anything. It's strange," she paused, deep in thought, "it just felt like we were somehow connected by what happened. I don't know if he feels that way too. It's not something I'm exactly brave enough to talk about outright. He is still _him_."

They both shot a glance in Severus' direction. "I don't know," Harry started. "Something is definitely different about him. I'm not sure what it is, but he seems…younger? Lighter somehow? I can't put a finger on it, but something has changed."

As the talk slowly died down, Severus caught Hermione's eyes from across the table. Not needing words to know he was at his limit for social interaction, Hermione stood up and thanked Mrs. Weasley for what had turned out to be quite an elaborate meal. Severus rose and they both passed a gauntlet of hugs and handshakes as they made their way to the door. Once outside, Hermione grabbed hold of Severus' arm as he apparated them back to the house.

After a quiet cup of tea, in which both were too absorbed in reflection over the night's events for much talk, Hermione stood up and stretched. "I think today was an excellent start. I hope you feel…slightly remedied?" she said, pausing at the foot of the stairs as she searched for the right words.

"I'm not exactly sure how to describe my feelings at the moment." Severus paused thoughtfully, but continued seeing the worry in Hermione's face. "Whatever it is I assure you that it is a positive and welcome change from any emotion I have felt recently. And I attribute it entirely to you."

Not sure how to respond, she shot him what she hoped was a reassuring smile and turned to go up the stairs to bed. Halfway up, she was halted by his voice, quiet but unmistakeable.

"And we were, for your information."

Her stomach flipped as she turned to face him, confusion in her face. "We were what?"

"We were connected by what happened. I simply have yet to figure out what that means."

She was still speechless. She stared into his dark eyes, wishing she could see through them into his head. He stared unflinchingly back, yet yielded no further information.

"Good night, Severus," she said with a warm smile.

"Good night, Hermione."

With that, she continued up the stairs to her bedroom. He washed and dried the cups from their long-gone tea, walked to the couch, and pulled out the black leather notebook.


	9. Chapter 9: Neville Longbottom

**Chapter 9 - Neville Longbottom**

The next morning Hermione awoke to the smell of cinnamon. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and opened them to find a still-steaming cup of tea and a piece of parchment. She sipped the tea carefully. _Mmmmm. Earl Grey, how did he know her favorite? _She grabbed the note from her bedside table and smiled:

_Yesterday gave me some excellent ideas. Come down when you're ready. We have work to do. –Severus_

Hermione smiled as she went to brush her teeth. Yesterday had given her the best feeling she had had since long before the war began. She couldn't isolate whether it was the looks on the Weasley family's faces as they saw Fred alive and well, the knowledge that she had helped one of the lives she had mourned losing, or the look of happiness she had seen on Severus' face after they returned home. _Severus…_

Her thoughts drifted to the last conversation they had had the night before. _We were connected…I simply have yet to figure out what that means._ Did she know what that means? Absentmindedly running a brush over her mass of curls, she desperately tried to deny what she hoped it would mean. _He'll never think of you _that_ way. _But maybe he could? He had said that in saving Harry he had paid his debt to Lily, and Harry had said he noticed something different about him. _Snap out of it, Granger. _She finished getting dressed in a hurry and rushed downstairs to hear what ideas yesterday had provoked.

Ten minutes later, Hermione and Severus were seated on the couch, already waist deep in a heated conversation about their next mission. "I would love to, believe me, but it isn't safe to go that far back. You _know_ that, Professor" Hermione taunted him with his old moniker.

"I did not just learn about time travel, _Miss Granger_," he stressed her formal name in retaliation. "However, I have been through all of my memories and this is the only thing. The only idea that…" he paused, dropping his playful bravado and suddenly softening. "This is the only solution that makes enough of a difference. He spent seven years terrified of me and I let him. I had to. The last year…it was even worse for him than it was for Ginny. I've been through the facts backwards and forwards, and this is the only thing that works." He finished as though it was a personal admission, not a rational statement. His sudden vulnerability stopped the argument he could already see building in her eyes in it's tracks. She exhaled, staring straight ahead for a moment. When her eyes met his it was with thoughtful support.

"Then how do we do it?" she asked with a conciliatory smile.

By early afternoon, the remnants of the delivery muggle pizza they had ordered so as not to have to stop working to cook had been shoved to the side to make room for more books. Hermione began, "If we start with the spell to summon a lost witch…" without missing a beat Severus picked up where she left off "…and compliment it with the strongest incantation we can find for memory loss…" Hermione took back over "…then we still have to account for the initial curse, which brings us back to square one." She finished with a sigh of defeat.

Severus ran his fingers through his hair as he thought, Hermione leafing rapidly through a dust-covered tome in her lap. "Let's take this one step at a time. We can undo the memory loss, since the physical damage has long since healed we only have to do preventative spells to cure any lingering symptoms of the initial torture, and we have figured out how to bring back their identities, but none of it will work without removing the initial curse," Severus summarized.

"Isn't that impossible to do since the witch who created the curse is dead?" Hermione asked. "Yes," Severus sighed in frustration, "without a sample of the magic that created the curse it is impossible for me to brew an antidote." Hermione froze. "What is it?" Severus asked.

"Could we get a sample of the magic from another curse cast by the same witch?" she asked, eyes staring straight ahead.

"Yes, but it can't come from the same curse we're trying to cure. It has to be a separate sample, and it's not like we have access to…" Hermione cut him off. "Yes, we do," she said quietly.

"What?" he asked, searching her face for answers. Still staring straight ahead, Hermione slowly rolled up the sleeve of her jumper. Severus' eyes dropped to her forearm and his eyes widened with horror.

"What did she do to you?" he asked earnestly, still staring at the word carved into her arm. Without moving her fixed stare, she began to reassure him that she was fine, when his voice, suddenly urgent interrupted her platitudes.

"Hermione!" His silky voice was forceful and loud enough to jerk her eyes to meet his. He had said her name as if getting her attention in order to say something very important, yet no words came. He simply stared into her eyes. He had long since made peace with the fact that his body, like his soul, were covered in scars. He accepted them as part of the dark past he had so long embraced and for which he was now trying so hard to atone. He had befriended his scars, but seeing her perfect flesh marred with the ugliness of that word was more than he could take. Unable to move, his dark eyes flashed with the volumes of unstated emotion at the contamination if this perfect woman with this darkest magic.

Upon hearing him say her name like that, Hermione's eyes jerked up involuntarily to meet his. Seeing the comfort, compassion, worry, and over all sadness in his eyes, her eyes filled with the tears she had been holding back since that day on the cold floor of Malfoy Manor. "Will it work?" she choked out with her last breath before tears came.

Seeing her perfect face distorted by tears, Severus could take it no longer. He reached out and, before she knew what was happening, had pulled her tight to his chest. Her first thought was of how strong he was. He didn't look so through his teaching robes, yet his chest was hard with muscles. She curled her face into his shoulder and sobbed quietly into his comforting smell of sage and sandalwood. He held her tightly, burying his nose in her lavender scented hair as he whispered comfort. After a few minutes she collected herself, yet stayed curled into his chest.

"I'm sorry," he said into the top of her head, smoothing her hair with his hand. "She's dead now," Hermione replied matter-of-factly. "Do you think it will work?" She pulled away far enough to see Severus' face, yet not far enough to pull out of his embrace. His breath hitched for a small second, neither used to nor prepared for being face to face at this proximity. He stared into her eyes contemplating the ramifications of letting go and pulling her lips to his, as he so desperately wanted to do.

"Yes, I believe it will," he replied, pulling his arms back and standing up so rapidly he did not exhibit his usual amount of grace. "Allow me a few minutes to conjure the basic equipment necessary for me to brew the potion, and I will extract a sample from you. It shouldn't hurt in the slightest, but we will have to reopen a portion of the scar." He was back to business in a way that made Hermione's heart sink. _Did I just imagine that? _She had found it harder and harder over the last few days to avoid imagining what a kiss between her and Severus would feel like. She had thought it was simply in her head, nothing more than a passing fantasy. _I swear he was going to kiss me._ She shook her head to clear her thoughts and began collecting the other spells they would need for this plan to work.

"I'll have to wear glamours so they don't recognize me. You haven't met, so you are fine going as your lovely self," Severus was back to the almost playful demeanor he seemed to have developed since their project began, "but they only ever knew me as a death eater. I don't imagine they would enjoy coming to and having me be the first thing they see."

Hermione had practiced her end of the spells enough to know them forwards and backwards; Severus had the anticurse potions stored safely in his pocket. They didn't need the cloak or the time turner for this one, but before they prepared to apparate out, Hermione brought out her wand and waved it over both of them. Both of their clothing transfigured into the outfits warn by magical nurses.

"Just in case anyone should walk in while we're attempting to pour potions down their throats," she explained. "You wear it well," he murmered, with a hint of something on his voice. After the incident before, Hermione was not inclined to read anything into it, so she quickly thanked him and moved to grab his arm for a side along apparation.

A few seconds later Hermione and a Severus heavily disguised by glamours were striding down the hallway of St. Mungo's long term care ward. Hermione recognized the room from her fifth year when they had run into Neville on their way to visit Mr. Weasley. Hermione went straight to the door and strode through it, yet Severus froze on the threshold at the sight of Frank and Alice Longbottom sitting in chairs staring at the blank wall. Hermione gestured for him to come in, but he remained frozen at the threshold. She quietly took his hand and led him into the room. He remained as far from the eerily still couple as he could, but allowed the door to shut behind him.

Hermione began chanting the spell to call a lost witch and, as the air around the Longbottoms began to glow with a subtle gold light, she heard Severus' voice behind her feebly beginning the memory retrieval spell. When they had finished their spells, he handed her one of the two vials and they each helped pour it down the throat of one of their temporary patients. After they had successfully ingested every last drop, Hermione recast her spell while Severus continued his memory charm. The golden aura began to grow thicker and thicker until all the sudden, with a loud clap, it disappeared into the bodies of the couple before them.

Both Longbottoms fell to the floor, completely unconscious. Then as, they both started to stir, Hermione rushed over to Mrs. Longbottom to help. He began to cough, but she grabbed Hermione's arm and, for the first time in 17 years, opened her eyes with complete understanding of her surroundings.

"Where's Neville?" her words brought a smile to Hermione's face. Hermione glanced back at Severus with a grin and noticed that he was wearing an expression of shock. She turned back to Mrs. Longbottom, "I'm a friend of Neville's. You're safe here. You're in a hospital. Let me summon your nurses to come in and explain everything." The frightened woman's face relaxed a bit and, as she heard Hermione mention Neville's name, she reached out to squeeze her husband's hand. "Thank you both," she said, looking from Hermione to Severus.

"No, thank you," Severus said softly from his corner. Just then, Hermione and Severus heard a conversation float down the hall between an elderly woman's voice and a very familiar male voice.

"Back to visit them again, dearie? Bless your heart."

"What can I say, they're my parents. I like seeing them even if they can't _really_ see me."

Hermione nodded towards the door and the two slipped out just as Neville rounded the corner and entered the room. After she heard Neville's startled gasp, Hermione couldn't help but peek into the small window on the door to see Neville, now kneeling on the ground hugging both of his parents at once. She turned back to Severus, who had removed his glamours but was still quite stiff, and saw him watching as the family, reunited at last, continued their long embrace.

She pulled herself to his arm in their usual formation for apparition, but when he did not immediately disapparate she looked up to his still frozen face. She reached up and gently brushed his hair out of his eyes. This seemed to break his trance, as he looked down at her, he face was still completely expressionless. As he looked down at the worried face of the witch on his arm, his face slowly spread into the first real, full-fledged smile she had ever seen grace his stark features. This smile was contagious. She grinned back and after a few seconds they disapparated, still locked in each other's gazes, smiling like neither of them had in quite a long time. As they disapparated, neither of them noticed the formerly-round face peeking out at them from the window on the door of the Longbottom's hospital room.


	10. Chapter 10: Transportation

**Chapter 10 - Transportation**

Every morning when she opened her eyes, Hermione half expected to come down the stairs to find her foul tempered, sallow faced potion master of old, swishing about in his black robes. Yet she was pleasantly surprised to find a very different pattern developing. Again this morning she had awoken to hot tea and a note by her bed. She got ready as fast as she could and rushed downstairs to find Severus hard at work on the sofa, having discarded his carefully repaired and cleaned black teaching robes for a well-conjured pair of khaki pants and a white button-down shirt. His face warmed upon seeing her at the top of the stairs with the mug of tea he had carefully brewed for her. She couldn't stop herself from smiling back and quickly descended the stairs while he began filling her in on the next item on the list.

"I was hoping you would explain what 'transportation' meant sooner or later," Hermione began. She knew from his note that this was the list item they would be tackling today, but she still had no idea what it meant.

"Do you remember the night when you moved Harry from Privet Drive to 12 Grimmauld Place, before school began last year?" Hermione shivered at the memory of transforming into Harry's body and serving as a decoy, "yes, we were attacked. The death eaters somehow knew about…oh." She stopped short, putting the pieces together.

"It was a calculated risk," Severus said heavily. "I knew you would be well prepared to defend yourselves even if attacked, and my revelation of Potter's transportation plans gained me needed trust both with Death Eaters and with Voldemort." She would never get used to the sadness in his face when he discussed the events in the war. It was more than grief, more than regret, but rather as if part of himself was still trapped in that time, experiencing the trauma over and over again. With a sigh, she realized that this was probably more accurate than she could know. _That's why we're doing this._ She told herself. _So he can be free._

Hours later, they were again beginning to disappear under a growing pile of textbooks, notes, and research materials. "Have you seen my quill? It seems to have gone with the sapphire necklace," Hermione asked, rifling through the massive pile of books stacked precariously on the coffee table-turned-desk in front of their sofa-turned-strategy-center.

"I may have muggle heritage on one side of my family, but that expression still evades me. Has all this reading finally turned you round the bend?" Severus' newly discovered playful side never ceased to take Hermione by surprise. She couldn't stifle her giggle, and quickly explained, "not a muggle expression, just a Granger family expression. My father gave my mother a sapphire necklace for their wedding. She wore it on their wedding day, but didn't want to take it off over the honeymoon. Somewhere in their trip through the Caribbean it disappeared, and somehow it just became an expression that whenever something was lost it must be with the sapphire necklace." She finished with a look of embarrassment on her face, having realized somewhere in the middle of the story that she was explaining her nonsensical family sayings to none other than Severus Snape.

Instead of the reaction she had begun to fear, halfway through her story (which was at best a sarcastic comment and at worst…she shuddered to think), he looked at her with an amused little smile and commented, "Ahhhhh. Well, in that case…" he reached over and pulled the quill out of her bun, where she had absentmindedly lodged it while rifling through a heavy encyclopedia of magical protection spells and their uses. Blushing madly, Hermione wordlessly took the quill and began to scribble quite pointedly on the paper in her lap, not daring to look up at the man sitting next to her.

_When did this happen?_ He couldn't stop himself from getting more and more distracted by the young witch beside him, and as the days went on it was, in his opinion, beginning to be a problem. He couldn't pinpoint when exactly, but he had stopped thinking of her as Miss Granger, the annoying little Gryffendor know-it-all with her hand flapping in the air or her nose buried in a book. No, his image of her was clearly that of Hermione, a fully competent adult witch who had faced death, torture, suffering, and sacrifice at the hands of the same evil he himself had fought against for so many years.

She had a sense of sarcasm and biting wit that was positively Slytherin at times, but had somehow retained the bleeding heart and unfathomable sense of compassion that made her into the Gryffendor she was. _I didn't think perfection existed_. He was simultaneously proud of himself for being able to open up to her (he was even comfortable with the little touches she made when she brushed his hair from his eyes or grabbed his arm to apparate) and furious with himself for getting attached to yet another unattainable Gryffendor witch. _Did you learn nothing from Lily? Girls like that will always end up with a Potter, or, as he feared in this case, with his faithful Weasley sidekick. You're just setting yourself up for disappointment._ He realized was staring a second too late as she glanced up at him and did a slight double take as she caught his glance.

_I know he was looking at me that time. I can't have imagined that. _ She thought ruefully to herself, but what she said was "I think that our best bet is going to be the same combination of sleeping and protection spells we used on Fred. The only hard part is going to be keeping him quiet."

"I definitely don't want him knowing we had anything to do with it. Allow him to think it was a Death Eater spell gone wrong, miscast somehow. We don't have to give him an explanation, his paranoia will surely take care of that for us," Severus responded.

"So we what, put him to sleep in a remote desert somewhere and let him wake up explanationless on his own time table?" Hermione was mainly joking, but stopped short at the end of her question with the face that Severus knew meant a thought was forming. "What if we used a deserted Death Eater meeting site. There has to be someplace they used to meet that is now abandoned. We could collect him that night, unconscious of course, and time turner him to the place and let him wake up alone. He would think he had been kept captive throughout the war and would never know the difference in the timeline."

"You're brilliant." She beamed under the rare praise from such intelligent a wizard, especially one of such few words and even fewer compliments. He continued, "I know the perfect place. The Riddle manner remains deserted to this day. The Death Eaters fear it, good wizards want nothing to do with it, and the muggles in the surrounding village still think it haunted. Tonight we ride?" Severus finished with a muggle colloquialism and a self-satisfied smile.

"Ugh, don't remind me." Hermione groaned in utter dread, "I do so hate flying."

"I will take care of timing, steering, and casting the protective enchantments around us. All you have to do is cast the sleeping spell after I block the killing curse. Also, it would be most useful if you could ensure the invisibility cloak does not slide off at an inopportune moment. I am sure Voldemort would not take kindly to my head showing up uninvited and unaccompanied by my body to a mission in which I was not intended to take part." Severus smoothly went over their plans for the upcoming mission.

"I know all the wandwork, it's just…" She took a deep breath, "I _really_ don't like flying," she finished with a nervous look on her face.

"I was never much for organized events such as Quiddich, but I am still quite competent with a broom. I promise no harm will befall you." With that, he mounted the broom he had summoned from his house at Spinners' End and swept her onto the back behind him. They donned the invisibility cloak, and she carefully wound the time turner while he began to fly. As soon as her fingers had finished with the small hourglass, she reached around Severus and clung on for dear life.

Hermione heard the soft thud of Mad Eye Moody falling into the magical net she had conjured where his body had previously landed. His now only unconscious form was cradled in what appeared to be a patch of tall grass, but was really a magical spider web of sorts, cushioning his fall but not allowing anyone to remove him from it. "We should take cover before we collect him," Severus whispered back at Hermione as the battle raged on in front of him. Hermione was about to agree, but had a split-second idea. She whispered her request quietly into Severus' ear and was not at all surprised when his shocked, "seriously?" made it's way back to her.

"Yes, please." She answered conclusively enough that he swiftly turned the broom 180 degrees and sped up slightly.

"Same spells?" he asked without taking his eyes off the target.

"Same spells," she muttered determinedly, wand already taking aim.

Later that night, Mad Eye Moody woke with a start. He was alone in a dusty room of a house he didn't recognize. To his surprise, he had his wand in his hand. He illuminated the tip and quickly assessed his surroundings. _This had to be _his _house,_ thought Mad Eye. After determining that he was, surprisingly, alone and, even more surprisingly, not trapped within the walls by any kind of spells or curses, he quickly made his way out of the house. Seeing where he was and finally putting together the significance of what that place must be, he quickly dissaparated. Deciding it best to make a few extra stops in order to make sure no one was following him, he apparated first to Dubai, then somewhere in Northern Canada. When he finally performed his final apparation to the door of 12 Grimmauld Place a full day later, he was greeted with faces of shock and eventual elation by the remaining Order members, who finally filled him in on what had transpired in the year he had missed.

Meanwhile, back at her house in muggle suburbia, Hermione sat on the couch with the feet of a sleeping Severus in her lap. She signed her name to the note she had just finished writing to Harry.

_Dear Harry,_

_Severus and I are continuing the mission we discussed at the Burrow. (Where I assume you are now staying? Are you and Ginny ever going to leave the nest? Mrs. Weasley can't be pleased.) Anyhow, our little project is not yet ready to be a matter of public discussion, so I do hope you can keep this between us (and the Weasleys, of course). However, in our most recent encounter I stumbled on an opportunity I simply couldn't overlook. Consider this a thank you for lending us your dad's cloak._

_ Hermione_

And with that, she sealed the letter and tied it to the leg of the snowy owl perched on the arm of the couch. Hooting softly, Hedwig nuzzled Hermione's hand in unspoken gratitude and soared off toward the Burrow.


	11. Chapter 11: Hermione Granger

**A/N: Thank you guys so much for all your reviews. They create all kinds of warm fuzzies. A few of you have requested that Hermione put poor Severus out of his misery, so this chapter will be...quite fun. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

**Chapter 11 - Hermione Granger**

This morning's bedside note had Hermione on her feet within seconds.

_Hermione,_

_I have something I need to ask you. Whenever you're ready…_

_ Severus_

When she came down the stairs he was waiting for her in the kitchen, again in his white button-down and black pants. _He looks so handsome... I am quite lucky he always taught in his robes or my good marks would have gone out the window. _Over the past few days she had been trying to reconcile why she never noticed Severus' appeal before. He was not good looking in the traditional sense, but there was a fire in his eyes and a presence in the way he held himself that she was shocked not to have noticed in the six years she spent at Hogwarts.

Eventually, she had come to realize that she was too busy listening to him as a professor to really see him as a person. However, what she had seen in the last few days made her curious enough to want to know everything else about him. She knew he had a first rate mind, not only a vast knowledge of facts, but a quick wit that put together pieces in ways others could not hope to match, but she was learning just how much was going on under the surface as well. Yes, he had darkness in him, but he also had an indefatigable sense of right. She reckoned this sense had to be stronger than it was in most good wizards for him to have survived so long as a double agent without destroying himself from the inside or turning to darkness for good. And finally, she knew how tortured he was. Haunted by nightmares of what he had seen, plagued with guilt for what he had done, and, she expected, more than a little lost now that he was on the other side of a war he had not expected to survive.

_I just want to hold him in my arms and take it all away from him, if only for a moment. _After trying to deny it, outthink it, and reason her way out of it, she had finally put it into words. _I have feelings for Severus Snape. _It wasn't just the allure of his first rate mind, or the smoothness of his chocolate covered voice. It wasn't that he was the best conversationalist she had encountered in a very long time (possibly ever) or that his horrible past had given him an emotional maturity _children_ like Ron and Viktor Krum could only dream of.

It was all of these things and it was none of them. When she distilled all of her emotions down into their basest forms, she was left only with the unshakable certainty that for no tangible reason she felt that he was hers and she wanted to be his. From the moment their eyes met in the boathouse, minutes after Nagini's attack, her instincts had pointed her towards him time and time again. And this was the most frustrating part about it. She could deal with logic. She could deal with facts. What she most certainly had no hope of fighting was the intangible feeling of warmth and rightness she felt spread through her body every time she was near him.

_Damn him for making me feel like such a giddy schoolgirl._ She sighed to herself as she joined him in the kitchen. "Good morning, Hermione," he said, pulling out a chair for her at the table. "I took the liberty of cooking breakfast this morning. I hope you like pancakes." Speechless, Hermione nodded, not taking her eyes off of him as he placed a delicious looking plate in front of her. After he served himself and sat down, she finally found her voice.

"So, your note said you had something you wished to discuss with me?" He squeezed his lips together, his mouth forming a thin line. She could tell he was searching for the right words to begin. When his eyes settled on her left forearm, still covered by a jumper, she understood why words were evading his grasp. "The portion we had to reopen for Neville's parents is healing quite nicely. With any—"

"It shouldn't have happened," he interrupted suddenly. His voice was soft and quiet, but his words came with so much emotion behind them that he might as well have shouted. She searched his face, finding so much pain in his eyes she felt her own prick with tears. Still trying to create coherent thoughts, he put his hand on top of the table as if to reach towards her arm, but stopped halfway. "I didn't know about it. It wasn't my doing—"

It was her turn to interrupt, "Severus, I know it wasn't—"

"But it's all I can think about. I have endeavored to focus on planning our next list item, but cannot bring myself to any productive state of mind. You have done so much for me. You are…" _Everything. _He knew how he wanted to end the sentence. _I can lie to the face of Voldemort himself but I cannot finish a sentence around a nineteen year old girl._ His bitter diatribe against himself was interrupted when Hermione reached out and grabbed his hand. His breathing, thoughts, and possibly his heart froze for a brief moment. When they resumed, an unexpected wave of courage accompanied them.

"You are everything," his silky voice softly accentuated each word. "And I cannot deal with other matters until I fix the one that I feel matters most." And with that, he exhausted the last ounces of his surge of bravery. Not having realized he was speaking with his eyes closed, he opened them and dared a glance up at the face he had been seeing in his dreams every night since the battle. He braced himself for repulsion, but instead found a mix of surprise, wonder, and utmost joy.

Upon hearing his words, Hermione's stomach made an attempt to leap up out of her body. She simultaneously felt like her head was lighter than air and felt a heavy coiling of nerves somewhere deep in her chest. She squeezed his hand while she tried to remember what words were and how to string them together in a sentence. _It's not in your head._ She finally admitted to herself that the crazy feelings she harbored towards this man might not be as unrequited as she had imagined them to be. Her head reeled with the complex matrix of possibilities she now had to consider.

"Hermione?" Severus' voice was calm, but she had gotten to know him well enough that he might as well have been pleading for her to speak. Seeing her silence cause him pain, she quickly found words.

"I… You… It's part of me now. It's okay. I mean, it's not okay, it's dreadful. But the event has…shaped me. I don't know if I would want to change it." With her words, his expression changed into what she had come to recognize as his thinking face.

"I feel the need to, for the lack of a better word, _protect_ you," he stressed the word as if saying the name of an old, dear friend. "I have to do _something_." His honesty and openness made her heart ache all the more.

"While I wouldn't want the event erased, I would love not to have the physical scar that resulted. Maybe we could take a day off from our project and try to brew a scar-healing potion strong enough to heal curse scars? If we succeed it might come in handy for you as well." She tried to search his face for a response, but when she still saw his thinking face she added, "a nice, quiet day at home, just the two of us, might actually be quite nice."

_Home…just the two of us. _He wanted to wrap his arms around her and never let go. Somehow she managed to find words that triggered an image of the two of them, years into the future, sharing a house together, sharing a life together. At this moment, he could think of nothing he wanted more. But his years as a spy had trained him well, allowing only the smallest hint of a smile to cross his features. "That would be an acceptable alternative," he reluctantly dropped her hand so they could resume eating.

Hours later, they had expanded the small potions lab Severus had previously conjured to take over the entire guest bedroom. Severus was carefully stirring, while Hermione chopped and diced with great caution. As she diced, an idea began to form. "Severus, how familiar were you with the house elves that served at Hogwarts?"

He didn't look up from the potion, but she could hear his smile through his voice, "I did not found an organization to safeguard their wellbeing, but I was thoroughly aware of their presence."

"You knew about S.P.E.W.?" she asked far too quickly out of embarrassment.

"You would be hard pressed to find something happening inside the gates of Hogwarts of which I was not aware, Hermione. Why do you ask?"

"There is an event from that day I would like to change. That is, if you're still amenable to the idea. Did you ever meet a house elf named Dobby?"

"So when we arrive, I will stop the dagger as you perform a sleeping spell. Are you sure you can make it gradual enough? You mentioned he conversed with Potter before he died. We cannot risk changing that interaction."

"_Professor?_" she said the word as a playfully sarcastic accusation.

"Yes, right. You are fully capable to—" Her giggle cut him off, causing another oh-so-rare Severus smile to spread across his face. She drew close enough to flip the time turner around both of their necks and they vanished.

Severus and Hermione kneeled on the sand. After cleaning the dirt off of the still magically sleeping house elf, Hermione pointed her wand between his furry ears and muttered the awakening spell. Slowly, the large, bulbous eyes opened and surveyed the two faces peering over him.

"It is not when I think it is, I think," Dobby muttered, his shrill voice slightly wobbly. Hermione cast a questioning look of shock at Severus. "House elves know things," he responded to her unasked question.

"Miss Hermione and Master of Potions saved Dobby?" the little elf asked, attempting to sit up.

"It's a long story, Dobby, but you're safe now," Hermione reassured him, patting his bony shoulder with one hand.

"No, Dobby knows it. Miss and Master of Potions saved Dobby's life! How will I ever repay you?" He was starting to sound like the old Dobby already.

"With your silence, should anyone ask you what happened," Severus volunteered. Having known Dobby for many years as the pesky servant of the Malfoys, he was still not used to interacting with house elves who were not bringing him tea or cleaning house.

"Of course sir. Whatever sir wishes!" Hermione smiled, seeing his personality come back reminded her of simpler times. Times before Voldemort's return.

"You can go to the Burrow for a while to recover. Harry's there. He'll be glad to see you and will explain everything. But you musn't speak of it with anyone other than Harry and the Weasley family. You understand that, Dobby?" Severus marveled at the kindness with which she treated every living thing. Dobby nodded so vigorously his ears flopped against his large eyes, causing him to blink rapidly in defense.

"Thank you for saving Dobby," he said, talking to Hermione, yet staring directly at Severus. Dobby seemed to consider something for a second, then flung himself around one of Severus' legs and hugged him as hard as a creature of his size could. Hermione could barely keep a straight face at the look of panic on Severus' face upon being unexpectedly ambushed with such a display of house elf affection. After the most amusing fifteen seconds of Hermione's life, Dobby drew back, bowed deeply, and vanished into thin air with a loud crack. Hermione turned to Severus, now smiling with pride, not amusement.

"You're a good man, Severus."

"I will never understand your obsession with those creatures," he said with playful affection in his voice. Taking his statement as the compliment she knew it to be, she smiled up at him as they apparated home.

When they got back, the scar potion had, according to Severus, cured properly, and was ready to use. He conjured a squat, wide, open-mouthed jar and poured a portion of the now quite thick potion into it. He carried the jar over to the sofa and gestured for Hermione to join him. She sat down as close to him as she dared, but first pulled her jumper over her head to reveal the grey tank top she was wearing underneath. She extended her forearm towards Severus, who lightly held it in one hand. His other hand reached into the jar and pulled out a glop of the now gelatinous potion. He slowly and gently applied the potion to Hermione's forearm, rubbing in small circles over the inscribed word. They both watched with wonder as first the redness disappeared, then the raising of the text lowered, leaving only a creamy expanse of her now unmarked flesh.

He stopped rubbing, but didn't release her arm. She looked up at him, only to find his eyes already on hers. When they locked eyes, both simultaneously felt the effect of what felt like a strong magnetic force pulling them towards each other. His mouth went dry as her stomach made another attempt to escape out through her chest.

"Hermione," he said her name like a plea, like a prayer. Hearing her name on his lips sent a ripple of electricity through her. She reached up with her free right hand to sweep the hair out of his face. Feeling her touch, he closed his eyes and leaned ever so slightly into her palm. She left her hand on his cheek. He opened his eyes to find her staring intently into his with a fire he had never seen grace her features.

He was stock still, mesmerized by her gaze, to afraid to move any closer yet unable to pull away. Without breathing, she slowly leaned forward towards him, her hand still on his cheek, her eyes never leaving his. She saw a flash of what she thought was fear on his face, but it was quickly replaced by an intensity that chased all thought from her mind. Her eyes closed at the last minute, and when her lips touched his the ball of energy that had been forming in her ribcage seemed to detonate. The kiss started off slow, tender, almost delicate. She pressed herself into his immobile lips, savoring the way they felt on her own. After a few seconds she pulled back just far enough to gaze into his eyes with her wordless question etched all over her face.

_She can't be kissing me._ His brain was in hyper drive. He had known what was coming from when her hand came to rest on his cheek. As she moved in toward him, every mental facility he had was working full speed to deny what was happening, think of some other plausible explanation, but when her lips touched his time froze. He could feel every nerve in his body, every sense focused on the beautiful young witch before him. He smelled her lavender scent, he felt the soft fullness of her lips pressing into his, and most of all, he felt the perfect smoothness of her skin. He didn't dare to move, lest his last particle of restraint crumble and he do something to scare her away. And then she did pull away, but not in disgust as he feared. He opened his eyes to find hers. He did not have to use legilimancy to hear the desire with which her eyes were crying out to him. Another few seconds of pause, he stared into her eyes, listening to her silent plea for him to kiss her back, and his last portion of self control finally evaporated.

His hands were suddenly around her lower back as he crushed her lips back to his. She felt the pit of her stomach respond as he poured every bit of sadness he had suffered, every anguished lonely night, every horrible childhood memory, and every terrified hope for the future into that kiss. Her lips moved seamlessly with his as his right hand moved up to knot itself into her messy brown curls, pressing her lips even more firmly to his own. She pressed her body into his, finally able to express the longing she had felt building since she first saw him slouched on the floor of the boathouse. She had searched for days for a way to show him how much she cared for him. Wrapping her hand around the back of his neck and pressing herself to his chest, she was not wasting a second of this chance.

After what could have been only minutes or hours on end, the kiss slowed to an intensely passionate simmer. The bedrock of her entire existence seemed to have shifted permanently. She slowly pulled back once more, staring into his eyes for some hint of what would come next. He delicately put his hand to her face and tucked one of the loose tendrils of her hair back behind her ear. They stared at each other, speechlessly reveling in the incontrovertible evidence that the longing they had each felt building for so long had finally been proved mutual. After so much build up, so much desire, and having finally experienced what Hermione now realized to be the first real kiss in her life, something finally snapped inside her and she let out an involuntary giggle. Hearing her laugh, Severus closed his eyes as if listening to the climax of a symphony.

"Did you know your laugh is the best sound in the world?"

It was all she could do not to kiss him again. Instead, she curled her head into the crook of his shoulder and murmured her thanks into the folds of his shirt. Arms still around her, Severus leaned back onto the deep pillows behind him and carefully stretched his feet onto the coffee table. Head not leaving his chest, Hermione stretched her legs across the vacant end of the sofa. As she snuggled into him, he planted a tender kiss into the hair on the top of her head. He heard her almost purr in response as she burrowed into his chest. Her breathing soon changed as she fell into a much-needed sleep, but Severus remained awake until the fire in the hearth turned to embers, marveling in the miracle of the beautiful witch asleep on his chest and stroking her thick curls as she slept. When sleep finally claimed him, he slept dreamlessly and well for the first time in over two decades.


	12. Chapter 12: The Invitation

**AN: Sorry for the delay in posting, but thank you for all of the favorites/follows/reviews. They make me so happy! In this chapter we take a quick break from Severus' list for an interesting talk between Severus and Harry.**

**Chapter 12 - The Invitation**

After having taken up semi permanent residence on the sofa in the living room, he was used to waking up to the warmth of the morning sun streaming in the window. This particular morning, he was woken by a different kind of heat. He opened his eyes, feeling fully rested for the first time in many years, still thinking about the beautiful dream he had been having. When he glanced down to see a mess of brown curls spilled across his chest, the witch from whom they emanated still breathing heavily in her sleep as she sprawled across his torso. Somehow in the night she had snaked her arm across his stomach and tucked her hand between his far side and the couch, turning herself into a de facto seatbelt and preventing him from leaving. As if he would move for anything.

Slowly, as he watched the peacefully sleeping witch on his chest, he played back his memory of the night before. The look in her eyes as her scar disappeared, her hand on his face, her leaning in to kiss him. He had been so unsure of how to handle himself that at first his body froze in defense of his last bit of restraint, not sure what would come pouring out if he allowed himself to breach the internal dam he had spent so many years of solitude building. But the look of insecurity, worry, and desire in her eyes had been too much.

Their second kiss had been…_everything_, he thought to himself. He could still feel the softness of her lips on his, the smoothness of her skin as she pressed herself to him. Over every physical sensation, the only thing that was playing in his mind was that she wanted him. _Him_. Severus Snape. He had spent so many years being the bullied youth, the Death Eater, the potion master, the bat of the dungeons, but never once had he been the guy that gets the girl. Smiling, he gently stroked the curls of the witch sleeping across his chest, knowing that she was living proof that his old life was behind him and whatever awaited him in this second chance she had given him would be infinitely better than anything he had experienced before.

Just as he was wishing that time could freeze and he could lie there next to her forever, a snowy bundle of feathers swooped in through an open window and landed on the arm of the couch. With his other arm, he took the letter off of Hedwig's foot, but was unable to read it, for the second she had delivered her fare Hedwig began nuzzling and rubbing her head up against Severus' hand. Every time he tried to move, she would follow him. Amused, he extended this comedic, interspecies dance, moving his hand, watching the owl affectionately sidestep towards his hand and continue trying to convince the hand to snuggle with her.

He was still playing with her, an amused smile on his face, when he was stopped in his tracks by a peel of bell-like giggles coming from underneath the curtain of hair draped across his chest. He glanced quickly down to see her light brown eyes smiling sleepily up at him.

"I think she knows you saved her life," Hermione's voice intoned, still gravely from sleep.

"And she plans to repay me by cuddling my hand to death?" he replied, tough words softened by the perplexed smile still lingering across his features.

"I could think of much worse ways to go," Hermione demonstrated by burrowing further into Severus' chest. Momentarily at a loss for words, Severus simply squeezed her tighter. Feeling her smile, he silently breathed a sigh of mental relief that Hermione had not had any changes of heart overnight. He finally succumbed to stroking the soft feathers around Hedwig's neck, causing her to nestle happily against his hand, shut her eyes, and express her pleasure with an occasional soft cooing noise.

"Are you alright, Severus?" she asked warily into his shirt. "I mean, with last night, and what happened? I didn't mean to… I mean if you didn't want—"

He cut her off, his hand abandoning Hedwig to pull her chin up and angle her face directly at his. "Last night was the best night I have experienced in a _very_ long time. I will not allow you to besmirch it in any way."

Her eyes lit up with happiness at his words. "Besmirch?" The light in her eyes had transformed into a playful grin.

"Besmirch," he repeated resolutely, in mock seriousness. She shifted her body towards him just enough to angle her lips gently up to his. The kiss was slow, long, and chaste. She melted into the shape of his body as he reveled in the feeling of her lips on his. As they slowly broke apart, Severus did not even try to fight the smile building on his face. He could have stared into her chocolate brown eyes for eternity, when they were rudely interrupted by a loud grumbling sound from Hermione's stomach.

"It appears as though breakfast is in order. May I do the honors?" Severus said, disentangling himself from her limbs. She nodded happily. He stood, paused for a moment and planted a soft kiss somewhere in the curls on top of her head, and walked into the kitchen. Hermione sat up and began stroking Hedwig's head absentmindedly.

"What did Harry want?" she called into the kitchen. Severus returned to the couch and picked up the piece of parchment he had rescued from Hedwig's leg. He opened it and read aloud:

_Dear Professor,_

_You have no idea how happy I was when I saw Hedwig at my window, and I was fairly sure it was your doing. Now that Dobby has arrived to confirm my suspicions, I would like to invite you over to talk about some things. Are you free for lunch at 12:00 today? Dobby would also like to cook you a meal as a thanks for saving his life. Send word with Hedwig if you are otherwise engaged, but I hope to see you soon._

_ Harry_

"That's strange. I would assume he would rather get his information from you than me," Severus commented, dropping the note on the table and returning to the eggs that were cooking on the stove.

"It makes sense that he would want to hear it from you," Hermione mused, following Severus into the kitchen. "Plus, maybe he wants to talk about…more than our project." Hermione dropped her eyes to her hands, not liking the thought of what, or namely who, that conversation would feature. She mentally scolded herself for what she wished she could pretend wasn't a slight jealousy at the idea of Lily Evans and whatever feelings Severus has, had, might have for her.

"That's in the past," he said without turning around. She scrutinized the back of his head, wondering if he was responding logically to the idea of what Harry might want to discuss or if he was responding intuitively to the jealous thoughts she had just been having. He had told her he had sworn off legilimancy, but sometimes she wondered at his uncanny ability to answer questions she had yet to ask. Either way, it went a long way towards soothing the feeling she had in the pit of her stomach.

"While you're gone, I think I'll start researching spells for our next mission," Hermione said as Severus was preparing himself to leave for his lunch with Potter. "You wanted to handle the seventh item in a similar manner to what we used on Fred, yes?" she asked absentmindedly as she held his robes up for him to slip on. He smiled at her, wondering silently how the everyday things had become so effortless so quickly together.

"Yes, but it will need to be strengthened somehow to account for the distance back from—" He stopped mid sentence as Hermione had seemed to stand up on tip toes to kiss him, but she had frozen halfway up, revealing that kissing him was more second nature than a conscious choice. Seeing the brief look of panic on her face, he couldn't fight a smile as he closed the remaining distance between their lips. When they broke apart it was clear that the smile had spread to Hermione's face as well.

Still pressed up against his chest, eyes not leaving his, Hermione softly ran her hands through his hair. "Hurry back," she spoke barely above a whisper. He bent and delivered a swift kiss to her nose and apparated away. As soon as he was gone, Hermione flopped down on the sofa and let out the sigh she had unknowingly been holding in all morning. _He likes me. He kissed me. It wasn't all in my head!_ She had so many thoughts going through her head at once she just sat lay there and let them wash over her. When she felt her mind had cleared enough to allow it, she pulled one of the thick books from the table onto her lap and let her mind disappear into its pages.

When Severus arrived at the burrow, he was quite unsure what to expect. He hoped he would not have to face the entire Weasley clan, but he thought the odds that he would be spared a great deal of well-meaning thanks that would only serve to make him more uncomfortable. He was pleasantly surprised when Harry opened the door by himself.

"Come in, Professor," Harry said, his tone full of a sense of respect Severus had not experienced in the six years he spent teaching him.

"Thank you. And in light of everything that has happened, coupled with the fact that I am no longer your professor, I think it is time for you to begin calling me Severus." Harry's face flushed, as he waved Severus in. They sat quietly at the kitchen table, Harry fidgeting with the sleeves of his sweatshirt. All the sudden, there was a crack and Dobby the house elf appeared in front of them. Seeing Severus, he paused momentarily as if fighting an urge, but quickly ran forward and gave Severus' legs a similar hug to that which he had encountered after saving the elf. Severus was momentarily surprised, but much to Harry's amusement, his demeanor softened and he bent to pat the top of the elf's head in a gesture of affection.

"Hermione is rubbing off on you, sir…er…Severus," Harry said, poorly concealing a laughing smile. Severus straightened, but not with the grimace Harry was expecting at having been caught patting a house elf. Instead, his features were lit with a strange half smile that seemed to radiate from somewhere deep inside his being. "Perhaps you are right, Potter," Severus said, half smile still firmly in place.

"If you expect me to call you Severus, it only seems fair that you call me Harry. Plus, given your, er, history with my father it might be better for our relationship…" he trailed off, sensing the sudden change of mood that seemed to have swept over the room.

"I assume this is why you wished to speak with me?" Severus asked, his voice matching the timbre he used to use when instructing a potions class.

"Not primarily, no, but if you don't mind I did have a few questions," Harry politely tested the waters to gage how freely Severus would speak with him.

"I would have thought my memories would have made things abundantly clear," he paused, sighed, and seemed to relax slightly with whatever internal discussion had just concluded in his head. "I will answer any questions you have…Harry." The last word sounded odd and strained coming from the same mouth that used to spit the word Potter, dripping with so much distain.

"Your memories were quite clear, sir…er…Severus. I understand what happened, why you did what you did, and, well, I just wondered how you feel now?" Severus' head jerked to regard Harry with close scrutiny, obviously surprised by the direction the conversation was taking.

"How I feel now? In what regard?"

"I mean, how you feel now…about my mum," Harry finished with an embarrassed tone to his voice, but his eye contact remained firm as he waited for the answer to his question. Severus closed his eyes, as if rewatching an event play across the inside of his eyelids. He sighed deeply, and when he opened his eyes, Harry saw a relaxation in his body posture he was quite sure he had never seen in his time at Hogwarts.

"How I feel about Lily has shifted several times over the course of our lives. As you know, she was my first friend. I valued her at first for her comfort and kindness. She was also, how do the students put it, my "childhood crush", pardon the phrase. I loved her as best as I knew how, but she and I were too different. She saw that and eventually married…your father," he tried to keep any animosity he had for James out of his voice, though doing so was not without difficulty.

"When they married, I knew it was improper for me to have continued feelings for another man's wife, yet I continued to idolize her as the paragon of kindness, goodness, and virtue I had known as a child. She had taken my awful childhood and turned it into a bearable, even often enjoyable adolescence. As my only true friend, I felt a duty to protect her, even after she no longer considered me to be a friend of hers. When she died, I took it upon myself to carry on her legacy, and her last wish was for you to remain safe. That became the way I would repay my debt to her for saving me as a child." Severus finished and looked to Harry for a reaction. Again, it was not what he was expecting.

"So you don't still love her then?" Harry's sincere and burning insistence raised Severus' instinctual red flags a bit. _Why was this such a concern to the boy?_ He answered regardless, "I will respect her. Always. However, in reflecting back I believe what I thought to have been romantic love in fact held a greater resemblance to respect, loyalty, and admiration. These feelings of appreciation for her nature will always be there. Her memory will always inspire me to be a better person. However, I would not qualify it as "love" in any way. Why do you ask? He stressed the last question and paused, searching Harry for an answer.

"I have been friends with Hermione since our first year," Harry began. _This is about Hermione? _Severus thought. Not much could surprise him anymore, but the words coming from the green-eyed boy across the table from him surely had. "I have seen her devote her time to books, her studies, and helping keep me from getting myself killed," he tried to inject some humor into the situation. "Not many people see the side of her that is fragile, because the front she puts up is either so intimidating or so easy to overlook that people generally don't look at her twice."

_I can't imagine who these people are. Only a blind person wouldn't see her beauty. _Severus dragged himself out of his thoughts to continue listening to Harry's words, but none came. "What does this have to do with my feelings for Lily?" Severus decided to cut to the quick.

"I saw the way Hermione looked at you when you two were here to bring Fred back. Profess...er…Severus," Harry paused and looked directly into his eyes. "Hermione does not do things in half measures. When she decides to do something, she throws her entire weight, heart, and soul into it." Severus was, for the first time in his relationship with Harry, stunned into silence. "She saved your life, and from what I can tell she has yet to leave your side since then," Harry paused one last time, now looking at Severus with the face of a father regarding his teenaged daughter's first suitor. "She has already decided on you, but she is not as strong as she seems. As the consummate bookworm, she has been overlooked so many times she is afraid of showing her emotions. She won't tell you how she feels, so you need to take the lead." Harry appeared to finish, but before Severus could respond, he quickly added one more statement, "and if you do not feel the same devotion to her she has shown towards you, please do her the kindness of removing yourself from her life as carefully and expeditiously as possible. She has gone through enough this year."

Harry was finally finished. Severus took a few seconds to gather his thoughts. _Did this former student of mine just sit me down and ask my intentions with Hermione?_ Severus' thoughts jumped to the most important piece of information Harry had divulged. _He said that she had already decided on me. Is this true? _His thoughts danced through the events of the past few days. Hermione trusting him with her scars. Hermione leaning up to kiss him. Hermione clutching him as she slept as if she was scared he would escape. Hermione on her tip toes to kiss him goodbye. Hermione's thick curls. Hermione's bell-like laughter. Hermione's light brown eyes. Hermione. _I am in love with Hermione Granger._ His thoughts sputtered to a halt with this sudden, uninvited, yet irrevocable fact. When he spoke, it was slow and deliberate, yet with a warmth that shocked Harry.

"Hermione has become everything to me. I have no plans of removing myself from her life, and can guarantee I will safeguard her happiness with every ounce of dedication I possess." And with this, Harry appeared satisfied. The rest of their visit was speckled with the awkwardness to be expected given the dramatic and drastic turn their relationship had recently taken, but as Severus walked away from the burrow, he felt a strange feeling that his relationship with Harry would develop into an actually enjoyable friendship, over time.

When Severus apparated into the living room of Hermione's family house, he immediately smiled at the head of curls draped unceremoniously across a thick book as the witch to whom they belonged slept peacefully on its pages. However, as soon as he took a step, she woke with a start. Her face was frightened at first and he saw her eyes dart toward her wand, but when she recognized that it was only him her face immediately warmed and lit up into a heartbreakingly beautiful smile. _How could anyone overlook this woman?_ He returned her smile as he began removing his outer robes.

"How was it with Harry?" she asked, folding up the book that had been serving as her pillow and stood up to stretch.

"Unexpectedly well, I must say," Severus noted the happiness in her face upon hearing this. "He cares about you a great deal." Hermione's face changed into one of mild confusion.

"What makes you say that?" Hermione asked.

"Just an observation." He sensed that her inquisition was about to begin, but by this time he had gotten close enough to reach down and pull her lips to meet his. Mirroring her behavior from earlier, he pulled only far enough away from her to free his lips to speak, keeping his hand on the small of her back, holding her to him as they spoke. "I have something I would like to show you. Would you mind taking the rest of the evening off?" Her unspoken answer was clear as he saw her eyes begin to sparkle in excitement.


	13. Chapter 13: The Meadows

**Chapter 13 – The Meadows**

When Hermione got out of the shower, she was pleasantly surprised by a pile of clothes displayed on her bed. She reached out to grab the familiar piece of parchment that lay on top and began reading with a smile.

_Hermione,_

_I took the liberty of conjuring you something fitting for our evening together. I hope you don't mind. I'll be waiting for you downstairs when you are ready._

_ Severus_

Placing the note into the top drawer of her bedside table, it landed on the pile of other notes he had left her, carefully stashed away. She turned her attention to the bed's remaining contents. The dress that Severus had conjured was exquisite. A beautiful shade of green, somewhere between emerald and hunter, it had a modest scoop neck in the front. Its high back was embellished by the tiny satin buttons going down to the waist, at which point fabric of the dress transformed from the fitted bodice to an equally smooth, yet almost weightless fabric that she knew would flow as she walked. _He went into the wrong profession,_ Hermione marveled to herself. _Severus, you should have been a tailor._ The pile also held a pair of black shoes and an intricate looking clip for her hair. It was delicate silver, woven around a spattering of emeralds. Stifling the schoolgirl sigh she knew was welling inside her, she collected the items from the bed and went back into the bathroom to get dressed.

Severus couldn't remember the last time he had felt nervous. When serving the dual masters of Lord Voldemort and Albus Dumbledore he was quite familiar with emotions like fear, dread, and the constant companion of uncertainty. Yet nerves had not been an issue in his life for quite some time. _I can face the most evil wizard of all time without flinching, yet I am literally pacing as I wait for a young witch._ Professor Snape of old would have berated himself, but as he pondered the changes he had undergone in the short space of the last week he actually felt a warm feeling creeping over his insides.

He thought over the conversation he had had with Harry yesterday. _It's going to be hard to retrain myself to call him by his first name._ Yet the boy had a point when he had said that not calling him Potter, the name of Severus' childhood tormentor, might do their developing relationship some good. Severus was forced to contemplate that the Marauders might not have been the sources of pure evil he had vilified them to be in his youth. While their dangerous tricks and pranks were cruel, hurtful, and potentially lethal in some cases, transitioning towards seeing Harry in a new (positive) light had allowed Severus to begin contemplating the traits he shared with his father that might not have been as bad as teenaged Severus had made them out to be. After minutes of contemplation, he sensed a nagging feeling developing in his gut that he had more to add to his notebook. Even as he fought these thoughts, the notion of trying to be the bigger man floated tantalizingly in the forefront of his thoughts. _You've been spending too much time with bloody Gryffendors._

As if on cue, his attention was drawn to the top of the stairs, where an absolutely gorgeous and not-so-subtly grinning Hermione had appeared. One hand on the railing, she slowly descended the stairs, her eyes not leaving his for a second. When she reached the bottom, she did a little pirouette as if to show off the clothes he had conjured for her. _She's a goddess. _He thought to himself. Hermione was, in fact, completely transformed from her usual baggy jumpers and messy bun. She looked outstandingly beautiful as the dress flowed around her, showcasing her trim waste and showcasing curves that he would have thought no amount of baggy clothing could have hidden. Her hair had been tamed by the magic of the clip, soft tendrils escaping from the front to frame her face.

As she watched him take her in, she was pleased to find that, after seven years of trying, she had finally astounded him into a stunned silence. After pausing to collect himself and reacquaint himself with the English language, he finally spoke. "You are breathtaking." His voice was even lower and silkier than usual when he managed to find words. They had their desired effect, as her smile got even bigger.

"Not so shabby yourself," she responded, gesturing to his neat, black dress pants and clean, white, button down shirt.

"So do I get to know where you are taking me, Severus?" she asked without abandoning her smile.

"Our itinerary has several stops," he said mysteriously. "Your outfit is necessary for the first phase of the evening. Shall we?" He offered her his arm in an old-fashioned gesture. After he had daintily placed her arm in his, he apparated them both away.

They appeared in a dark alleyway, but he quickly lead her out into what turned out to be a fairly busy muggle street. She did not know exactly where they were, but she could smell the sea. "This explains the choice in clothes," she commented as he lead her into a fancy looking, dimly lit, muggle restaurant. He addressed the maître d in hushed tones, "Snape, for two. Six o'clock." The man checked the list, grabbed two heavy leather menus, and held out his arm for them to follow. He led them to a table in the back of the restaurant. As they got closer, she saw that what had appeared to be the back wall was actually a large window, looking out over a gorgeous seascape. The maître d pulled her chair out, "Madam Snape" he nodded with respect. Hermione blushed and couldn't help noticing that Severus neither corrected him nor managed to completely stifle what looked suspiciously like a smile.

When the two were seated, Hermione finally asked the obvious question, "So why did you choose this place, Severus? I never pictured you to be the type to frequent the muggle world." She inspected his features as he embarked on what she correctly guessed would be a far more personal story than she had expected when she first asked the question.

"There is a former Death Eater safehouse hidden a bit further down this street. Voldemort prized himself in being able to hide in plain sight. He has locations throughout several countries, often in muggle neighborhoods. They aren't as observant as wizards." He paused to relish the spellbound look in her face as she listened, seemingly enraptured by his every word. "I was often tasked to this safehouse. The alley in which we arrived is the only safe location into which one can apparate without being noticed. As I walked with dread to meet Voldemort I always passed this restaurant. There were always happy muggle couples entering or exiting, talking excitedly about their mundane lives. I have never regretted leaving the muggle world, yet when I passed this place I always imagined what it would have been like to lead a _normal_ life, not to be on my way to lie to and appease the whims of an evil wizard. I wondered what it would have been like to enjoy the simple things like taking a beautiful woman to dinner."

She blushed at the compliment, but he watched with amusement as she quickly displayed the look years of experience told him she was putting things together in her mind before she spoke. "I had been wondering how to mention that you left yourself off the list." The unadulterated kindness in her words shocked him. How she was able to safeguard this immense ability for empathy while suffering the unspeakable events she had experienced and carrying out the duties with which she had been tasked he would never know.

"You are truly the best of Gryffendor, my dear." She smiled in response and stretched her hand across the table to intertwine her fingers with his. After a few moments of appreciative silence, their conversation drifted into less serious matters. Throughout the course of the evening, they finally managed to forget, at least briefly, about the war that had raged around them, about their scars and their pasts. He sat back in overjoyed surprise as she laughed at his sarcastic jokes, while she reveled in seeing a smile grace his previously stern features more and more often. After they paid the check, she resumed her place on his arm as they exited the restaurant. The pair walked in contented silence back to the alleyway from which they had first emerged.

"Where to next, my mysterious Slytherin?" Her eyes gleamed with curiosity as he disapparated them wordlessly away. When she saw where they appeared her eyes widened in surprise and disbelief. Her confused face turned to him for explanation, occasioning a satisfied smile. "I figured you would be missing your friends after a week of separation. When I spoke with Harry earlier he mentioned how many people he had had to stave off from seeking you out in his effort to protect our little project. However, he mentioned that we were both welcome here any time, so…" He finished his sentence with a repetition of the half bow the maître d had previously shown when he led them to their table. Not sure whether to gape at him in surprise or throw her arms around his neck in happiness, she compromised by following his outstretched arm into the doorway of the Burrow.

An hour later everyone was still draped across the various couches of the main family room of the crooked little house. Ron and Fred were sprawled across the floor engaged in an intense game of wizards' chess, George sitting off to the side of the board to act as commentator. Molly and Arthur were seated at the dinner table, discussing his day at the ministry. Severus was sitting on the end of a sofa, his one arm wrapped around the shoulders of Hermione, who had stretched her legs out across the remainder of the sofa while she used him as a backrest. Harry was seated on a cushy armchair with Ginny in his lap, her legs stretched over one of his arms to face Hermione. The four had lapsed into what turned into quite an interesting conversation about how best to deal with the remaining Death Eaters that were still at large.

Hermione couldn't believe how well Severus had meshed into the fabric of her friendship with Harry. The two were quite cordial, even friendly. They seemed to be tied by some unspoken secret the two of them shared. She assumed it had to do with the revelation of Snape's true allegiances and his history with Harry's mum. However, she kept intercepting knowing glances cast between the two men that indicated to her that there had to be more to it than that. The Weasley family had also accepted his presence with unexpected ease, no doubt due to his part in Fred's return to the household. In fact, Molly had given Severus such an alarmingly tight hug when he entered the Burrow, that she occasioned a frightened look on his face and a giggle from Hermione as she witnessed the exchange. Hermione had still yet to have a real conversation with Ron, who seemed keen to stick to the pleasantries and then casually avoid her, but, she noted to herself, he had never been too much of a conversationalist in the first place.

What pleased her most was that she noticed that Severus seemed to be actually relaxing and enjoying himself. Throughout the evening he seemed most at home talking to Arthur and Harry, but she couldn't help but feel the vibrations against her back of his silent laughter every time one of the twins landed a particularly witty verbal blow, usually against each other or Ron. Overall, she couldn't stop the spread of a warm feeling that all the parts of her life, old and new, were going to fit seamlessly together in a way she would never have imagined being possible.

As the fire in the hearth began to die, everyone began to drift off to their separate rooms. First the twins exited, muttering about business plans. Ron shortly followed. Soon after Arthur yawned, stretched, and led Molly by the hand up the twisted stairs. Eventually, after Ginny nodded off for the third time, she extricated herself from her previous position nestled in the nook of Harry's shoulder and walked up the stairs towards her bedroom.

"Where do you sleep, Harry?" Hermione asked, realizing that this wasn't actually his house.

"You're sitting on it." Harry gestured to the sofa.

"That's horrible!" Hermione exclaimed, feeling the shake of Severus' laughter at the display of her usual enthusiasm against anything unjust.

"It's better than my bedroom at the Dursley's," Harry commented dismissively. However, sensing that his answer had not appeased her qualms, he elaborated further. "I'm not quite sure where I'm going to go next, but Ginny is here and I know that I'm not going to spend any more time away from her." She couldn't help but notice another knowing look shoot from Harry to the man sitting behind her. She felt the arms around her squeeze her momentarily.

As if on cue, she felt Severus shift as if to stand. Harry too got up, so she followed suit. She heard Severus's silky voice thank Harry for the invitation and to extend the same to the Weasley family.

"Don't be strangers, you two," Harry said. "I know you have some things to take care of on several fronts," another knowing look shot from Harry to Severus. This time she thought she even saw Severus nod in return. Harry continued, "However, now that we don't have to hunt horecruxes or do…whatever scary spy stuff you did, we can finally enjoy each others' company." She was surprised again at the two men's familiarity with each other. _Scary spy stuff? How much did I miss at lunch? Next they'll be using each others' first names and playing quiddich together. _But she knew that she was glad for whatever had transpired to make things so comfortable between the pair of men.

"Indeed, Harry." Severus said, shaking Harry's hand and wrapping his other arm around Hermione's waist to lead her to the door. _One out of two._ She joked to herself. As they stepped outside, he pulled her into him and planted a gentle kiss on her lips, tenderly tucking one of her escaped tendrils behind her ear after he pulled away. "My dear, would you be amenable to one more stop before we head home?"

"I don't know how anything will surprise me after that."

He smiled down at her. "It will be quick, but I have something I wish to show you." She nodded and felt the now-familiar swirling sensation as they disapparated into the moonlight.

When she again felt solid ground under her feet, she was standing on a dark path. As her eyes adjusted, she saw that the path weaved its way along the side of a cliff. To the left of the path was a sharp drop off that lead down to the sea below. To the right of the path was a large expanse of tall grass, waving gently in the sea breeze. Looking forward, her eyes followed the path to a rugged little cottage house that looked over the sea. While there were no lights illuminated anywhere around the house, she definitely felt a sense of warmth emanating from it.

For the second time in the evening, she looked questioningly up at Severus. He gently took her hand and began walking slowly towards the house. For the first few paces, they were quiet. She was torn between admiring the gorgeousness of the moonlight bouncing off the sea and the beauty of the wind rippling through the seemingly endless stalks of long grass in the meadow to her right. As they got closer to the house, she could discern the writing on a sign by the fence around the front porch. In an old fashioned script, it read "The Meadows", describing perfectly the bucolic idyll to her right. As they got to the house Severus sat on the steps of the front porch and, still in possession of her hand, pulled her into his lap, replicating position Ginny and Harry had occupied earlier in the evening.

"This place is amazing," Hermione practically whispered into his collar.

"It's mine," Severus said simply.

"What?" Her face jerked back so she could look into his eyes. She found them full of laughter, though his mouth remained serious.

"I have been a professor at Hogwarts my entire adult life, but I also began to brew potions for the hospital ward. With time, I began brewing for larger magical hospitals throughout England. I had no use for a vault in Gringotts full of gold which I had neither the time nor inclination to spend, so I created an escape plan of sorts. I did not expect to survive the war, regardless of which side emerged victorious. However, in an uncharacteristic fit of optimism one day, I stumbled upon this place and decided I would buy it. It is protected by every form of protective magic that was used to hide Hogwarts. It is unknown to the Death Eaters and the Order alike. I made sure I was the only soul who knew about its existence. I kept my sanity knowing that, should by some odd miracle I survive, I had something completely untouched by my past life. It is a place that is truly and completely mine."

She could think of no response to the honesty he had just displayed. Knowing Severus' general dislike of idle words and not wanting to ruin a perfect moment, she simply leaned her head into his neck and squeezed his hand. They sat quietly for a second, when Severus' silky voice broke the silence.

"And now yours as well."

"What?" Hermione's head again jerked away to survey Severus' features.

"When we met earlier, Harry impressed upon me the fact that if you saved me as you did, if you were helping me as you are, if you look at me the way he saw you look at me…he impressed upon me the great lengths you would go to for those you care about. He also mentioned that if I should be worthy of such dedication, I should make my intentions toward you clear, as you would never press the issue yourself."

Hermione somehow found her shaky voice through the barrage of thoughts assailing her highly capable brain, "And what are your intentions toward me, Severus?"

"Unfortunately, I believe Harry stole the best way to describe my feelings. I do not wish to go anywhere other than where you are. I am, for all intents and purposes, yours. If you will have me, that is…" Her lips were on his before he could finish speaking. This kiss was nothing like the gentle kisses they had been exchanging throughout the day. He had been asking her a question when her lips interrupted him, and she used them to pour out her answer. Her hands running through his hair, she pulled her body as tight to his as she could. Catching her sentiment in an instant, his hands wrapped around the small of her back and pulled her in as their mouths continued to explore each other.

His mouth was surprised to feel the gentle pull of her teeth as she nibbled his bottom lip. He felt a low moan escape from somewhere deep inside him. She groaned in response and he took the opportunity to briefly graze her lips with his tongue. He shuddered when her mouth opened, granting his tongue further access to her own. Severus had the wisdom to pull away before the last threads of his dwindling self control snapped. Looking at her flushed face, both panting from the intensity of their kiss, he couldn't help but smile.

"Does that mean you feel the same way?" He smiled a coy smile, having gotten a fairly strong hint as to what her answer would be. However, the smile on his face vanished as he saw the pained, almost fearful expression playing in her features.

"Severus…" she began, eyes contracting as if about to confess a heartbreakingly dark secret. Seeing what he read to be either insecurity or embarrassment in her eyes, he attempted to steel himself for an unexpected blow. _How could I have bared my soul only to get rejected? Again. I'm going to kill Potter._ He wanted to look away but he couldn't pull himself away from the eyes to which he had grown so attached.

Hermione seemed to have steeled her courage, took a deep breath, and spoke. "I love you, Severus." Her voice was meek and quiet as she peered anxiously up at him through her eyelashes. His mouth was back on hers in a heartbeat. He kissed her feverishly, as if the world was ending and this would be humanity's last chance to demonstrate what a true kiss was supposed to be like. She was his, and he… he had been hers since he first looked up at her face in the boathouse.

"As I love you." His voice was still smooth and thick like velvet, yet now it had a gravely timbre she had never heard before. It swept away any thought in her mind but that of him as his lips returned to hers.


	14. Chapter 14: Albus Dumbledore

**Chapter 14 - Albus Dumbledore**

Hermione and Severus sat intertwined on the front porch of the cottage at the Meadows, staring out over the darkened ocean before them. Hermione was already wearing Severus' jacket. He had given it to her under protest when he first felt a small tremor of cold run through her body, yet she asked him if they could stay a little longer. A small while later, she shivered again in the cold night air.

"That, dearest, is our cue," Severus didn't let go of her with his arms, yet he stood up so that the feet of the woman who had previously been in his lap were deposited on the step in front of him. "Home?" He asked, staring into her moonlit eyes, still half in denial of the major threshold they had crossed in their relationship.

"I am home," Hermione smiled sweetly up at him, squeezing him softly as she spoke to indicate that her current position in his arms was the home to which she was referring. _I can't believe he's mine._ She couldn't comprehend how this immensely intelligent man in her arms had actually said he loved her, but the constant reminder of his warmth pressed against her was staving off her disbelief.

"And I assure you that I have no intentions of leaving your presence any time soon, yet unless you want to experiment with spells that heal pneumonia we should you get you back to the house." Hermione nodded her assent and Severus pulled her lips to his as he disapparated.

Hermione tentatively came down the stairs after she had warmed herself with a scalding hot shower. She was dressed in her pajamas, but did not like the idea of being away from Severus all night. _Our relationship has already had enough firsts tonight, but I just… _ "I think I will read for a bit before I go to bed," Hermione said, trying to sound nonchalant as she strode into the room, picked up her book, and sat down on the couch next to a pleasantly perplexed Severus. While neither was fooled about her true intent, Severus was only too happy to open his arms and allow her back to rest against his side as they took up their now usual positions on the sofa. She pulled a heavy book into her lap and he shifted his book into his left hand so his right could wrap around her and pull her tight to him.

Minutes later he heard her breathing change and felt the turning of pages cease. Afraid that if she awoke it would mean her return to the bedroom his solitude on the couch, he quietly put his book down on the end table and grabbed his wand. First he removed the book from her lap, levitating her bookmark into place as the book floated onto the coffee table. Then, he summoned a blanket from the nearby shelf and spread it over her sleeping form. Finally, he gently moved the coffee table a few feet towards her side of the couch and added another three feet of cushion in front of his legs, making the sofa into the shape of an L. _Perfect_, he thought, not wishing to wake up with quite as many numb appendages as he had the first night they slept on the couch together.

He reveled in the feeling of the witch in his arms. _I can't believe she's mine._ He recalled every event of the evening, reveling in the fact that, for once in his life, everything had not only gone according to plan, but also had vastly exceeded his wildest expectations. _She loves me._ He buried his nose in the curls on his shoulder, savoring the now familiar scent of lavender and Hermione. "I'll never let you down, my Hermione," he whispered as quietly as he could into the folds of her hair, settling in to her form and falling into a record breaking second consecutive night of nightmare free sleep.

This time it was Hermione's turn to awaken first. She had shifted in the night to stretch out her legs and nestle her face into Severus' chest. Her first thought in waking was to recall his voice from the night before. _I am, for all intents and purposes, yours…I love you._ Her more than capable brain did not feel equipped to handle the amount of happiness that the events of the past 24 hours had created. _He loves me._ She couldn't help but smile as she looked up at the face of her sleeping Severus.

His features which had once seemed harsh and angular had softened slightly, their angular nature now creating a strong and masculine profile that, while not typically seen, held an undeniable allure. Her eyes flicked upwards to his hair and her senses assaulted her with the memory of running her fingers through it as he kissed her on the porch. _The house! _

She could not fathom how much this entirely private man had to trust her in order to show her his escape plan, the place he had told neither dark nor light about. It was just his and he had shared it with her. _And now yours as well. _This is not a mere fling for him. He is serious. Her mind inquired if this should worry her, that things were moving too fast or getting too serious too quickly, but every fiber of her being was completely sure of the fact that Severus was the only man she would ever want. This girl who had for so long struggled to find friends, acceptance, love…she had found her rightful place at the side of the most intelligent man she had ever met.

It took her a second to realize that the dark eyes she loved so much were now open and regarding her with a look of utmost contentment. "Do you make a habit of watching people sleep, my dear?" The sarcasm in his silky voice that had once terrified her now reassured her that this was, in fact, her Severus. "Only you," she replied, kissing his nose as she rose. "Breakfast?"

"But surely he would not approve of our project…aren't you worried that—"

"He would not dare. Especially after what he asked of me," Severus replied, his tone reminding her of just how much darkness Severus had suffered in the struggle between Hallows and Horcruxes. Her eyes caught his, trying to communicate the infinite sorrow she could not voice but felt for what he had endured. The far corners of his mouth raised slightly, showing his appreciation for her support.

"As you said, we can use a shield spell and the same sleeping spell we used on Fred, but we have to ensure it is a great deal more powerful. It will have to last over a year, and we know Voldemort went to visit the grave at least once." Severus grimaced. He knew only too well how dire the consequences of tinkering with such a pivotal moment in the war could be.

"I know of one spell we could use to amplify the sleeping spell we used with Mister Weasley, but it is fraught with problems. It actually places the subject into a state of limbo between life and death. While it is impossible for the living to distinguish the difference between limbo and actual death, the souls of those subjected to it have been known to visit other souls in a similar state. Many people came close to death the night of the battle. If just one of the survivors came close enough to visit limbo… Albus would only have to make a connection with one of them to make a potentially hazardous change in our reality."

Severus had been speaking into the pages of the book in his hands, but being met with silence made him glance up at Hermione, who was sitting wide-eyed as if she had just seen a large and fanged creature creep through the door. "What is it, Hermione?" he asked in alarm.

"You said those under this spell can make contact with others in limbo?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"It was him. It was _actually_ him. This is it, Severus!" She slammed her book shut and turned towards him in excitement, crossing her legs so she could face him on the couch. "When Harry went into the forest to meet Voldemort, he knew from your memories that he had a portion of Voldemort's soul in him. He knew he needed to let Voldemort kill it…him, in order for Voldemort to be mortal." Severus' eyes widened as he realized where she was going.

"After Voldemort cast the killing curse, Harry said he dreamed of Kings' Cross Station. He said that _Dumbledore_ was there to explain what was happening…that Harry could choose between going back to the fight and…moving on. This must be how he did it! I'd always wondered just how that happened, Severus, it was us!"

Severus smiled briefly, as Hermione had slipped back into her habit of speaking in very quick run on sentences when she got too excited, but was focused primarily on the information she had just presented. One eyebrow raised in his piqued interest, he confirmed, "Harry told you that he saw Dumbledore?"

"Yes. He spoke with him. He said it was Dumbledore who told him what was happening, gave him advice," Hermione said, carefully studying Severus' face for a response.

"We already did it." He sounded shocked. "That is very complex magic, Hermione." She could see in his eyes that is Slytherin brain was calculating all the ways in which their spell, still yet to be cast in their timeline, had altered the war that just finished. When his eyes finally rose to met hers, she was shocked at the meekness, almost childlike look on his face.

"I actually did something good," he said with humility and just a touch of happy surprise. Hearing his words, Hermione could have cried. Placing her hands on either side of his face, she forced his eyes to look directly into hers, bringing their faces within a foot of each other.

"You have done so much good, Severus. There is no way either of us would be alive were it not for what you did, not to mention the fate of the rest of the wizarding world. We are all here because of the good you did. You saved all of us. You. Severus Snape." _What did I do to deserve you? _He examined the beautiful witch before him. _How could you believe in me so thoroughly with what I've done?_

"You are a good man, Severus. And don't let anyone tell you differently, even you." Hermione answered Severus' unasked question. In response, he could do nothing but close his eyes and lean his forehead into hers. "I don't deserve you, my love," Severus murmured.

"Yes, you do. You deserve so much more than me, Severus. That's my point," she said replacing her forehead with her lips, gently kissing his forehead.

"There is no such thing as more than you, love. You are everything." Severus looked deep into her eyes as he spoke.

"I love you, Severus," she paused and drew in a great breath, as if drawing her wits about her. "Now let's get back to work."

Hermione could tell that lurking quietly in the corner of the astronomy tower was difficult for Severus. His body pressed tight to hers, as it always had to be under the invisibility cloak, she could feel his muscles rigid with anticipation. _I would be a nervous wreck if I were about to see myself commit a murder_, she thought in explanation. Together they watched the scene as if it was a dream, both stiffening silently when past Severus appeared in view.

Hermione studied the man's features carefully. He was still her Severus. Albeit a pale, stressed, almost stricken looking version of him, but the strong jaw she so loved to trace with her kisses, the dark eyes that had become her favorite sight in the world, the hair through which she took so much joy in running her fingers…they were all still there. _I wish I could have found him sooner. I wish I could have protected him from all of this. _She could do nothing but squeeze her Severus' hand in silence and wait for their cue.

Standing back in their own time, over the cool white marble of Dumbledore's grave, Hermione still had Severus' fingers intertwined in her own. Severus raised his wand to lift the stone away, but froze halfway through the incantation. She looked at him, trying to ascertain his thoughts, and was met with the same look she had seen on his face in St. Mungo's when they were healing the Longbottoms. She had not understood what this look meant at the time, but she could now clearly see the fear in his expression.

"He's going to be grateful, Severus. You're saving his life." He did not respond to her words, but he soon resumed the incantation and the marble lifted away to reveal the inert form of the Headmaster. Working together, Severus and Hermione began muttering the awakening spell. Gold light from both of their wands shot out and swirled around the body like fog. As soon as the fog had surrounded the body completely, the murmuring stopped and the pair anxiously held their breath. The gold mist slowly began to glow brighter and brighter, until it simultaneously exploded outward and dispersed. Below where the mist had been, now opened the light blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore.

His eyes settled on Hermione, then Severus. At long last he spoke, "I think a spot of tea might be in order, Severus. I assume you can help me up to my old office?"

Albus had listened quietly to the story from the event in the Astronomy Tower, through the hunt for horcruxes, and the battle,. As Hermione told the portion where she detailed how she had saved Severus, he slowly pulled her hand into his lap and interlaced his fingers with hers. After a while, Hermione got quieter while Severus filled Albus in on the list and the things they had done so far. When they finished speaking, Albus did not speak for a long while, slowly sipping his tea and piercing the couple before him with his twinkling blue eyes. When he finally did speak, it was accompanied by an amused and almost childlike smile.

"You two have accomplished a great deal. It would seem that you bring out the best in each other." Hermione chanced a quick look at Severus, who was displaying one of his rare, half smiles, like he wanted desperately to remain impassive, yet he couldn't quite pull it off.

"You know that there are certain limitations, Severus. If you go too far back or save someone whose death served too great a purpose you could undo a great deal of good work. It was risky even saving me," Albus' stare did not grow any less intense. "That said, I am immensely grateful for what you have done. And," he added with a measurable sense of amusement, "I am most pleased to note that two of the brightest minds in our generation have finally found each other." And with this, Severus and Hermione broke into full out smiles of shock.


	15. Chapter 15: The Additions

**Chapter 15 - The Additions**

Hermione could not shake the feeling that she was dreaming. If she was, it would have been a pleasant dream, but a strange one. People from all phases of her life were spread across her childhood house. At the same kitchen table where she had done her muggle homework as a kindergartener sat Albus Dumbledore, the esteemed headmaster of Hogwarts and one of the most powerful wizards in history, deep in conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, the parents of one of her best friends in the world, and the Weasley twins, who between them had arguably caused more trouble in their time at Hogwarts than anyone in the history of the school.

She was seated in her usual spot on the sofa, leaning into the arms of the man she loved who, in another life it seemed, had not only been the most influential double agent in wizarding history but also her potions professor. On her other side was Ron Weasley, with whom she had shared one awkward kiss in the heat of the battle of Hogwarts, but who was apparently trying to accept her new situation with as much grace as one could hope to have when transitioning out of the habit of calling someone a greasy git. Perched in front of them on the coffee table sat Harry Potter, the boy who lived, who was adoringly playing with the red hair of one Ginny Weasley while he debated remedies for curses with Severus like they were old friends. _This has got to be a dream. _She couldn't believe how seamlessly all the different parts of her life had fit together. But feeling the camaraderie return between her and Ron, hearing Harry's voice free of the stress that had plagued it for the last year, and feeling Severus' arms around her middle continually reminded her that it was her new reality.

When they had retrieved Dumbledore from his marble grave earlier that night, he had been insistent, in the passive yet incontrovertible manner that only Dumbledore can quite muster, that he hear about the events of the past year from Harry himself. Hermione had sent her otter patronus to Harry to meet them at her house (Hogwarts was still ghostly in the wake of the battle), and with Harry came the Weasley clan. Severus had greeted them one by one they apparated in, noticing how happy Hermione got when everyone she had grown to love was in one place. _I am going to live my life surrounded by bloody Gryffendors._ He tried to manage his usual level of sarcasm, but even the most embittered voice in his head knew that, for one of her beaming smiles, he would happily take up permanent residence in the midst of Gryffendor tower.

Now, Hermione safely nestled into his shoulder, he was actually pleased to have Harry to help them discuss the list item of the day: Dumbledore's hand. They had not known how the curse would have responded to Dumbledore's extended unconsciousness, nor how the magic of the curse would respond once the evil wizard who had cast it was no longer alive. Fortunately, the curse's progress had halted when their sleeping spell hit Dumbledore, but Voldemort's demise had not removed the curse entirely. It was currently stable in the state it had been in when Dumbledore "died" and seemed to be neither progressing nor mending from there.

"…but we never know if it could start getting worse again. We have to find out a way to get rid of it entirely." Harry made a valid point. Severus had been primarily responsible for delaying the progress of the curse and he knew better than anyone that if the curse somehow decided to mobilize again it would be all but impossible to stop.

"And you can't go back and just switch out the rings?" Ginny asked.

"We've already taken a huge risk doing what we did, Gin," Hermione responded. "If we took the curse out of the timeline it would not only change when Voldemort felt the horcrux get destroyed, which would change his behavior, but it would also change Dumbledore's behavior in the interim. It's too risky."

"Too bad you weren't tasked to curse him instead of kill him, then you could just reverse it," Ron said carelessly to Severus. Four heads whipped around to face Ron.

Ginny let out a reprimanding, "Ron!" eyeing Severus' face to see if he had taken offense to Ron's comment.

"Ronald, you're a bloody genius!" Hermione gasped.

"What?" Ron looked completely confused.

Instead of offense, Snape seemed to have had the same epiphany as Hermione. The two had shifted so they could see each other and were now having what looked to Harry, Ginny, and Ron as a very rapid, wordless conversation.

"Anything you care to share with the class, guys?" Harry chided after a few seconds.

"Could you?" Hermione asked, finally transitioning to spoken words.

"It would have to be timed very precisely," Severus responded, the pallor of his face returning slightly to that to which they had been accustomed to seeing before the final battle.

"But, Severus, _could_ you?" Hermione's tone indicated that this was not a question of ability, but of Severus' tolerance for dark magic.

Severus made a tender shushing noise, brushing Hermione's cheek with his thumb as he spoke, "I have done worse for lesser causes."

"Seriously guys, care to enlighten us?" Harry's words broke whatever spell was connecting Hermione's eyes with Severus' dark gaze. It was Severus who spoke.

"I have to be the one to cast the curse. If I can get to the ring before he puts it on, we can cast a protective barrier that will keep the actual curse from infecting his hand. But I will have to cast an equally damaging curse at the same time. One with the same symptoms and time table as the one the ring had," Severus spoke with a quiet sense of urgency that showed the young Gryffendors around him realize what a formidable part of the war he had been.

Harry was the first to speak, "Can you cast a spell that past Severus won't be able to differentiate from the current one…or undo with his potions? Because weren't you the one Dumbledore went to in order to try to remove the curse?"

_Harry does actually have a decent head on his shoulders,_ noted Severus silently before he spoke. "The curse I plan to use has no known cure. It was used only by high level Death Eaters and will provide a very convincing replica for our purposes."

"If there's no known cure, won't we be right back where we are now then?" It was Ginny's turn to ask questions.

"It is an unknown fact that certain dark spells can be removed by the wizard who casts them. Most Death Eaters do not have second thoughts about cursing people, so it remains a well-kept secret." As Severus spoke, Hermione couldn't help feeling protective of him. She knew he had had to do unspeakable things to maintain his cover with Voldemort, and she knew how necessary it had been that he do so, but a part of her wished she could somehow go back and save him from what he had experienced.

Again, as if he could hear her thoughts, she felt Severus' arms tighten around her as he whispered in her ear, "it's all right, love. I'll be right back." With this, Severus got up and went upstairs, returning with the invisibility cloak and time turner. Hermione rose to his side.

"Are you sure I shouldn't come with you?" He shook his head, but saw the worry in her face. Lifting her chin with his finger, he placed a gentle kiss on her lips before pulling the cloak over his head. Her arms felt it as he started turning the little hourglass, and she disentangled herself from him and sat down on the couch.

"So we just…wait then?" Ron looked from Harry to Hermione, knowing they were the only two who had previously travelled by time turner. Hermione took a deep breath, knowing that Severus was fully capable of handling this by himself, but far preferring it when she got to go on missions with him. Another breath. He would be back soon. She knew he wouldn't keep her waiting too long. Breath. Unless maybe something went wrong…

Severus' head appeared at the opposite end of the room, shortly followed by his torso as he removed the cloak. Hermione's arms were around his neck before the cloak was fully off, partially shielding the rest of the room from the unintentional display of affection she could not help but creating.

"What took you so long?" she whispered.

He smiled the smile he only let her see and replied cryptically, "while I had the time turner I had to make one extra stop. I'll explain later." Sensing the discomfort of the watching group, she quickly created some space between their bodies, but kept hold of one hand as she asked him how it went.

"We'll see," Severus said quietly enough for only Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny to hear. Then in a louder voice, "Albus, do you mind gracing us with your presence for a moment?" The rest of the Weasley family followed Dumbledore into the living room, curious at what was about to happen. "Do you mind lending me your arm for a bit of an experiment?"

Albus extended his blackened hand, blue eyes twinkling in the kind of excitement one sees in a muggle parent watching their child ride a bicycle for the first time. All eyes were on Severus as he aimed his wand at the cursed hand and began muttering spells under his breath. At first nothing seemed to happen, but it soon became readily apparent that the dark pigmentation was creeping down his wrist, pulling towards his fingers. When the skin on his wrist had regained its previous coloring, it became obvious that the darkness was not simply disappearing, but rather traveling through the air and back into Severus' wand. Everyone's eyes were trained on Dumbledore's hand, everyone but Hermione who was staring at Severus, who was still muttering spells under his breath but had begun to sweat and was looking paler than ever. She put her hand on his shoulder, trying to funnel her magic through her hand to help strengthen him. The darkness continued to drain until the last bits of pigmentation flew through the air from Albus' fingertips to Severus' wand. When he had collected all of it, he collapsed on the couch, panting and grimacing as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

Dumbledore flexed his fingers, an amused smile spreading across his face. "I take it that I missed a great deal while Mr. Weasley was filling me in on the current state of the Order?" His blue eyes fixed on Severus' black ones. "I do not wish to understate my gratitude to you two, but I must insist that this be the last time the fabric of time is tested. We all have too much to lose should any of the key events in the last year be somehow changed." Dumbledore had not lost any of his authority in the year he spent entombed off the grounds of Hogwarts.

It was Hermione who dared answer, "We assumed you would not find our little project… appropriate. You'll have to forgive us for saving you for last so you wouldn't—"

She was interrupted by the steely intensity of Severus' voice, "we have almost completed our tasks, but I have some final business that needs to be addressed." The silent tension in the room would have required the sword of Gryffendor to cut as the two formidable wizards locked eyes. After an extensive battle of unspoken wills, it was Albus who spoke.

"If what Mr. Weasley's has revealed to me about the last year is true, it would seem I have some urgent business to take care of at Hogwarts prior to the start of the next term. I can't see myself finding the time to return the item in question to the Ministry until I ensure the next term begins without event." His blue eyes sparkled with hidden meaning. "And now, if you will excuse me, I must go and find Minerva. I believe she and I have some work ahead of us." With that and a flourish of his robes, Dumbledore disapparated.

The stunned group could find no words, except for Ron who had been staring at Severus like he was a ghost until he managed to mutter at Severus. "You're a little scary sometimes. Brilliant, but scary. I see why you two are so good together now." And with that, Hermione dove into Severus' shoulder again and the tension in the room dissolved into laughter.

"So what more do we have to do?" Hermione asked over her shoulder as she washed the dishes left by their now-departed guests. Severus, who was sitting at the table tea cup in hand, didn't respond. Hermione looked over and saw that he was staring into the side of his cup as if deep in thought. She gently took the cup out from his long fingers and placed it on the table, climbing into his lap and placing her palm on his cheek. "What is it, love?"

"You saw my memories of what my time at Hogwarts was like, yes?" She nodded, but continued listening. "I started down the wrong road before I officially joined the Death Eaters. I spent so much time wrapped up in my own anger and self-pity…" he trailed off. She rested her forehead on his and shut her eyes, breathing in his amazing smell of sandalwood and something else that she couldn't ever quite place.

"You did the best you could. It was unfair what they did to you. No one blames you—"

"I always reacted in kind. I tried to top them. I wish I could have been the bigger man." He seemed finished, yet she still had no idea where he was going with this line of reasoning.

"What does this mean for our project?" Hermione asked warily.

"The Marauders. I have to save them."


	16. Chapter 16: The Marauders, Part I

**Chapter 16 - The Marauders, Part I**

"The…marauders…" Hermione's face showed every inch of the shock Severus was expecting at his declaration that he wanted to save the group of boys turned men that had tormented him mercilessly during his school years.

"Severus, you know there's nothing we can do about Lily and James. It's too far back, and it was the protection from her sacrifice that allowed Harry to survive Voldemort's attack in the first place…" she trailed off, trying to keep her mind focused on the logic of her argument and hoping it would hide the slight twinge of jealous worry in her stomach at the idea of Severus wanting to save his childhood love.

Severus' voice started out hard, almost pained, "I agree that those two are beyond our help. Her sacrifice in his blood was something that couldn't be faked. We would change the timeline irreparably." He then glanced up at Hermione's attempt at a neutral expression and softened his tone to a heartfelt whisper, "In addition, my dear," he punctuated his sentence by pressing her knuckles to his lips, "I only have eyes for one witch. Lily is my past; _you_ are my future. I thought you knew that." Hermione's embarrassed blush was answer enough to him that he had correctly read her expression.

She quickly picked up their previous conversation, ashamed that he had seen the jealousy on her face, yet relieved at the absolute nature of his answer. "So who then? We cannot do anything for James and Lily, that leaves us with-"

"Remus Lupin." Severus sounded determined again. "He was not at fault for what happened to him. I should have been more compassionate for his…affliction."

"And Tonks too?" Hermione asked. "I know if I was saved from death only to lose you I might not think it such a kindness after all." She had expected resistance to her statement. She could have imagined him resisting on the grounds that they were making enough changes already. What she did not expect was the sheer force with which his lips crushed into hers.

She didn't know what had sparked his sudden passion, but she matched his mood in an instant. His right hand was intertwined in the thick curls of her hair, pulling her into his already forceful kiss. His left hand snaked around her waist to her lower back, anchoring her body against his. Her hands found his hair, the muscles on his arm she could feel through his long sleeved shirt. She was just in the process of losing herself completely in his passionate embrace, she whimpered slightly as she felt his lips leave hers. She opened her eyes to figure out where they had gone. When she saw his dark eyes they were sparking with a fire she hadn't seen during any of their previous kisses. When he spoke his voice was husky, low, and smooth as silk.

"You really feel that way about me?" His eyes surveyed hers with a fire that she felt would surely ignite her if she couldn't get her lips back to his with great haste.

"Severus, I may not have the benefit of years, but ask anyone who has ever met me and they will tell you I know what I want when I see it. You are it for me. I have found my person and, as a very smart man once said, I do not wish to go anywhere other than where you are. I am yours." He answered her words not with a response, but with another kiss, even more passionate than the first.

As his lips worked their way from her mouth down to cover her neck, she whispered softly in his ear. "Take me upstairs, Severus. We can't sleep on the couch forever." Before the words were out of her mouth, he had swept her up in his arms and risen from the table. He navigated the journey from the kitchen, through the living room, and up the stairs to her bedroom without issue, eyes never leaving her face for a second. As he set her down on the bed where he had laid for the first few days of his recovery, she took hold of his shirt and pulled him on top of her. Pivoting gracefully over her, his hips landed on the far side of her body, allowing him to press as tightly as possible to her, while not putting all of his bodyweight on her delicate body. As his hand found its spot on her lower back and pulled her to him, she felt what she thought was evidence of his enjoyment of their kiss. (_How should I know? Before Severus I had kissed a total of two boys, once each.)_

She lost herself in the feeling of his body pressed against her own, finally able to embrace him properly having moved from the couch to her bed. He relished the feeling of her hands on his body as she explored his arms and shoulders. He felt them move to his chest and he pressed into her until he felt the cool night air hit his skin. Pulling away from the confused witch in his arms, he moved as if to attempt to close his shirt.

"What's wrong?" Her words were a question, a complaint, and a plea, all at once. Her eyes caressed the exposed region of his chest with fierce longing.

"We need to slow down, love." He spoke with utmost caring, reaching out to put her cheek in his palm as he spoke.

He watched as her face changed, her brain obviously having reached a conclusion as to why she thought he pulled away. "Did I do something wrong?" His response was not what she had hoped for as he smiled, stifling a small giggle.

"Severus!" She cried, chastisingly. "I've never done anything like this before! How am I supposed to know—" his words cut her off.

"Hermione, I assure you. You did absolutely _nothing_ wrong. As you no doubt could feel…" He took a deep breath and adjusted his position slightly in a way that illustrated his point. The look of panic on her face receded slightly, only to be replaced with confusion.

"My Hermione," she had never heard her name said with such reverence and care, "I am, how should I…I am an incredibly old fashioned man." He regarded her expression as the light started to dawn on her eyes. "I want nothing other than to allow you to finish unbuttoning my shirt, vanish every piece of your clothing, and ravish you for the duration of the evening."

A small mischievous smile touched her eyes as she interrupted, "ravishing sounds lovely."

He stressed the first word, "_However_, if you truly feel about me the way I feel about you, we have our entire lives for…ravishing." He smiled devilishly as he said the last word, making something deep in her belly pulse in anticipation. He looked deep into her eyes as he continued, "I have done enough wrong in this life. You are my second chance to have something good, pure, _right_. I am utterly unwilling to tarnish you, and so I will happily wait until you are officially mine in every way before the aforementioned ravishing." He waited for her to respond as she clearly weighed what he had just said.

"Severus, I appreciate how you see me, but I am already yours in every way. Plus, you must be used to a certain amount of…fulfillment. I don't want to deprive you of…I don't want to make you suffer for my inexperience." She bit her lip as she finished, clearly not used to discussing such matters.

He surprised her by clearing his throat in a manner that made it clear he was no more comfortable than she was. "As I said, I am a very old fashioned man. This is, in my opinion, not an area to be entered into lightly. Though I may be in the minority, my opinions on this matter have never waivered."

"So you haven't…?"  
"I have waited a very long time for you, my dear. A bit more waiting will do me no lasting harm." With this, Hermione curled close to his body, laying her chin on his chest to look him in the eye.

"I can still snog you with reckless abandon, right?" With this question the tension of this overly serious conversation seemed to break and both of them dissolved into laughter.

"I would have it no other way." He said with a devious smile, causing her to begin laughing again. She closed her eyes as she giggled and was surprised when his lips gently caught hers. She pulled herself up towards his mouth and curved her body to fit his once more. Neither of them was sure when they transitioned from kissing to peaceful sleep, but both slept more soundly intertwined in each others' arms than they ever had alone.

"Again, it will work for Remus, but not for Nymphadora. Her status as a Metamorphmagus changes the way the spell will interact with her body on a cellular level." After the most wonderful night in her memory, Hermione and Severus had returned to their usual places on the sofa and were knee deep in their usual pile of books, debating the next item on Severus' list.

"But if it works for Lupin, lycanthropy and all, shouldn't it be a similar level of interference from her condition?" Severus had never been this at home talking to someone. Due to Hermione's predilection towards books, she was the conversational match he had sought and not found in so many of his peers.

"Yes, but his condition only activates on the full moon, so it was in a dormant phase during the battle of Hogwarts. He will react as any other wizard would, yet with her transformative nature, we will have to take extra precautions in casting the spell." Severus had a point.

"You know who we need." She said it not as a question, but a statement, knowing full well that he was thinking the same thing as she was.

"No…" he tried to protest, but had the sinking feeling that his bright, young witch would win on this one.

"Severus!" Minerva McGonagall's voice rang out across the still ravaged great hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Scottish woman's robes flew out behind her as she almost sprinted across the rubble to pull Severus into an embrace. Hermione couldn't help but laugh at the uncomfortable, startled expression on his face as he awkwardly patted his colleague's back. When the elderly witch pulled away, Severus drew Hermione to his side, part out of habit and partially in defense from further embraces. As he did, Minerva's face lit up with an almost maternal glee.

"Look at you two!" she exclaimed, her joy occasioning a meek grin from Hermione and the beginnings of a proud smile from Severus. "I was quite surprised when Albus told me, but the more I think about it. It just…it fits. You two truly deserve each other." She paused and sighed in an over exaggerated way that embarrassed Hermione and caused Severus to stifle several sarcastic comments inside his head.

Drawing the focus away from them as a couple, Severus got down to business. "I assume Albus filled you in on what we have been working on?" Hermione could not help but feeling a small surge of pride as he spoke. She had returned to Hogwarts not as a student, but as a survivor of the war, Severus' equal, and his partner in an important undertaking. She felt as though the past few weeks had signaled her full entry into the adult world, and she was so proud to have taken her place next to this brilliant man.

Minerva was now showing them to her office, where Hermione hid her displeasure as a house elf brought them tea. Severus was filling her in on the stumbling block they had hit in trying to enact the sleeping spell they had been using on a Metamorphmagus. While he spoke, Hermione couldn't help but notice the woman kept glancing over at her.

After a long discussion in which Severus and Minerva went back and forth about immensely complicated properties of various properties of transfiguration as manifested in the Metamorphmagus genome, during which Severus was proud to see Hermione knew enough to make her a useful and vital part of the conversation, they had finally worked out a spell that would perform roughly the same function on Tonks as the sleeping spell they had prepared for Lupin. Minerva also recommended that, given the highly sensitive nature of the remaining items on the list, they bring the rescued pair back to the castle until a plan could be formulated as to how to explain their mysterious reappearance to the wizarding world at large.

At the end of the conversation, Severus took his leave to retrieve the time turner and the cloak, while Minerva pulled Hermione aside for a word. With a quick glance at Severus, who nodded his reassurance as he took his momentary leave, Hermione took her seat next to her former transfiguration professor, who currently wore a look of what Hermione thought looked like maternal worry.

"I just wanted to make sure you are doing okay. I have always considered you as more than just a student, though I would never admit it to the others in the house. So much has changed for you in the last few weeks, I wanted to make sure you know you can come to me for anything." It appeared Hermione had guessed right on the maternal worry front.

"Professor, I—" Hermione began when she was cut off.

"It's Minerva now. You are no longer a student and you are the chosen partner of one of my long time colleagues and trusted friends. If that doesn't make you a peer, I don't know what does." Hermione blushed.

"Okay, _Minerva. _I really expected to handle this a lot worse than I am. I mean the battle, and all those months in that blasted tent with two teenaged boys…" Minerva shot her a look of understanding sympathy before she continued. "I felt like I would break down when the war was finally over, once I could breathe again, so to speak. But then Severus happened and I feel…complete." She was encouraged by the warm smile growing on Minerva's face. "I finally know what I felt was lacking all those years. The reason I was so stressed and upset and lonely all the time. It was him. It was always him. I just didn't know it yet."

"In that case, my dear, you should know that I have never once seen Severus look at anyone the way he looks at you. He is a hard man to get along with, his trust is exceedingly hard to gain, and I've never actually seen anyone gain his affections. He will be fiercely loyal to you. I would have thought that if Severus ever got serious about someone I would have to warn them to treat him right or face me, but that is the same talk I would have given one of your potential suitors, so it kind of cancels out. I'm so proud of you two, honey. Enjoy each other." Hermione couldn't help but throw her arms around Minerva in a grateful hug. It had been a long time since she felt like she had a mother she could talk to, and Minerva had just given her exactly the reassurance she had unknowingly been craving. When Severus returned to the room both witches were grinning from ear to ear.

"I leave you two alone for two minutes…" he muttered in fake distain as he entered the room. Hermione and Minerva laughed as Hermione rose to Severus' side. "Shall we?" he asked, placing the time turner cord around both their necks as she drew the invisibility cloak around them. After it was obvious that the hidden couple was no longer present, Minerva whispered "good luck" into the spot from which they had disappeared.


	17. Chapter 17: The Marauders, Part II

**Chapter 17 - The Marauders, Part II**

Remus Lupin looked up to find a blurred light above him. _Is this what death looks like? _No, it couldn't be because the shape of a human head obscured the light above him. As his vision slowly cleared, he could see that the head was female.

"Tonks?" his hoarse voice made Hermione smile as she finished the last bit of the awakening spell. As she finished, he blinked several times before she saw the recognition dawn on his face as he realized who she was.

"Professor Lupin, it's Hermione. Everything is going to be okay."

"Miss Granger, where am I? What happened? Where's my wife? What about Teddy? What day is it? How did I get here?" his words tumbled out of his mouth in rapid succession, causing Hermione to giggle slightly and look over her shoulder.

"Is this what you think I sound like?" As she spoke, his eyes followed the line of her self to see Severus Snape standing in the corner of the room. He immediately sat up and dragged himself away from Severus into the opposite corner. His fear was only slightly tampered by the look of amusement on Hermione's face.

"Okay, I see now why you wanted me to be the one to wake him up," she said to Severus. "Professor Lupin, the battle is over. Voldemort is dead, largely due to Severus' efforts." Severus couldn't completely stifle his smile as he heard the warmth and affection in her voice as she said his name. Lupin relaxed, but only by a fraction, as Hermione continued. "You were killed in the midst of the battle, but we found a way to keep it from happening and bring you here. Professor McGonagall is in her office next door and will explain everything, but we have to go get Tonks now. Are you okay for us to leave you for a few minutes?"

Lupin's face changed from fear to worry and heartbreak at the mention of his wife's name. His shaky voice asked in a whisper, "Did she die too?"

"Not if we can help it. We'll be right back." He watched incredulously as Hermione rose and situated herself under Severus' arm as she looped the thin chain of the hourglass around both of their necks. Severus threw the invisibility cloak around them and they were gone. Lupin stared at the spot from which they disappeared for a few seconds, then shakily rose to his feet. He patted down his coat and realized that his wand had somehow been placed in his pocket. _If this was a Death Eater trick, surely they wouldn't leave me with my wand. _With this realization, he headed towards Minerva's office to get some answers.

Remus was pacing across the back wall of Minerva's office, having heard her explanation of Hermione and Severus' project, yet still thoroughly worried about the fate of his wife. He only looked up when he heard a familiar voice from the doorway.

"Remus!" A head of pink hair streaked across the room and was in his arms in a second. He buried his nose in her hair as she hugged him, whispering reassurances into the top of her head. In the doorway, Hermione put her arm around Severus' waist as she smilingly watched the reunion.

Severus' eyes met Minerva's as he pulled Hermione tighter to his side and planted a kiss on the top of her head. He saw his colleague smile at his tiny gesture of fondness for the young witch in his arms. Minerva nodded subtly as she smiled, showing Severus her unwavering support both for what he was doing and for the person with whom he had chosen to partner. A sense of warmth had begun spreading through him and with each moment with Hermione only served to magnify it. It grew with every person that was not only accepting of their relationship but supportive and pleased for both of their sakes. He had to hand it to fate, he never thought that he, Severus Snape, would be happy, but it seemed his second life was going to be a vast improvement on the first.

Once Remus and Tonks had finally allowed some space to come between them, Hermione walked to the other side of the room to talk with Tonks and Professor McGonagall. Lupin slowly approached Severus, in the manner with which one approaches a wild animal that may or may not attack at any moment. The two men stared at each other for an extended moment before Lupin broke the silence.

"Minerva told me what you and Hermione are doing." His statement was factual, but hardly a conversation starter. Knowing that was not what Lupin actually wanted to say, Severus nodded his head slightly, inviting Lupin to continue.

"She didn't mention why. With everything that…why, Severus?" It was asked with sincerity, not distrust, which took Severus slightly aback. He took a deep breath and looked Lupin straight in the eye as he answered.

"I have made many unfortunate choices in my life. Though I eventually allied myself with the correct side, I feared the decision had been made too late to be of any help to my tarnished soul. I considered myself to be a casualty of war long before the war actually begun, but I was saved." He glanced over at Hermione, who was laughing at something Tonks was saying to Minerva, and couldn't help but smile. Seeing Severus' smile for the first time since they had been students at Hogwarts and seeing what was causing that smile, Lupin's expression began to change. Severus continued, "I was given a second chance, but she doesn't deserve my tainted past. I cannot undo what I have done and she accepts me for all that I am, but I had to right some of the more egregious sins of my past."

"Why me? Surely with our history—"

"You deserved what happened to you as a child even less than I deserved what happened to me. I should not have held your…status against you. I truly hope that with the events of recent years we can finally put our differences aside." In a final gesture, Severus extended his hand towards Remus. Remus slowly grasped it to shake hands, but halfway through the handshake seemed to have a change of mind and pulled Severus into an awkward man hug. Hearing a collective 'awwwww' from the witches in the corner, the two men broke apart with a spattering of nervous laughter. Severus' eyes lingered on Hermione as the girls returned to their conversation.

"So are you going to do something about that?" Lupin asked quietly.

"In what regard?" Severus asked, not taking his eyes off the golden curls on the other side of the room.

"She obviously feels the same way about you, and you of all people do not work in half measures when it comes to love. What are you waiting for?" As Lupin spoke, Severus managed to tear his eyes away from Hermione to read Lupin's face for verification that he meant what Severus thought he meant.

Having confirmed that they were on the same page, Severus answered honestly, "I still have one more item on my list before I can in good conscience tie her future to my tarnished past. Your canine friend, as fate would have it."

Lupin looked Severus deep in the eye as he responded. "You have waited long enough for happiness, Severus. If what they say is true, after what you did for Harry, after what you did for us…don't wait another second for happiness. I wouldn't trade a minute I've spent with her," his eyes pointed to the Metamorphmagus in the corner. "Consider it," Lupin finished poignantly placing a hand on Severus' shoulder before walking across the room and reaching his arms around Tonks, pressing her back to his chest as she talked. Severus' eyes followed Lupin across the room, but stopped at the sight of Hermione, who was still laughing heartily at whatever was being discussed.

"Where are we going, Severus?" Hermione's voice floated down the pathway as they walked away from the castle. Severus reached back and took her hand, but gave her only a cryptic eyebrow raise for an answer as he continued down the path. In a few minutes, he felt a tug on his hand as her steps stopped suddenly. She looked up at him, not sure why he wanted to revisit this location, but his face silently told her that she should trust his plan and she quietly followed him, drawing herself closer to him as they neared the boathouse.

They stopped in the exact spot where Severus had been laying when Voldemort ordered Nagini to attack him. Hermione clung to Severus side as they both noticed the remaining blood stains that still lined the wall and floor where he had lain. After a few minutes, Severus turned towards Hermione, a look she had never seen and could not identify across his face. He grabbed both of her hands as he slowly began to speak.

"I fully expected for my life to end here. Long before I knew when or why or who would do it, I knew that I would not live past the end of the war. I had accepted it. In a way I was almost glad. I had spent the first fifteen years of my life pining after something I couldn't have and the second fifteen coming to terms with the fact that I didn't deserve someone who was good, and brave, and pure." He paused to take a deep breath, looking up from the blood stained ground to meet Hermione's worried gaze.

"When you saved me, you didn't just save my physical body. You gave me a reason to live. You helped me realize that it was possible for me to feel like a human being again. You helped me right a fairly extensive list of wrongs. You brought me into the company of your friends with pride instead of shame. And the biggest miracle of all, you loved me back." With this last sentence, Hermione's look of worry transformed into the beginnings of a smile.

"Hermione, you are everything. You are the most intelligent, brave, pure, kind hearted, and beautiful person I have ever met. You could have any wizard you wanted and I don't know why you chose me, but if you give me the chance, I will spend the rest of my life ensuring you never regret that choice." A single tear slipped down Hermione's cheek as Severus slowly sank onto one knee before her, eyes never leaving her own.

"I never want to spend another moment in which I am not by your side. You are my reason for living and you would make me the happiest man in the world if you would be my wife." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. He opened it to reveal a ring with a large oval diamond surrounded by a swirl of smaller diamonds that worked their way onto the band.

"Hermione Jean Granger, will you marry me?"


	18. Chapter 18: The Engagement

**AN: Thank you for all your wonderful reviews and all the likes/favs. This one is a bit fluffy (not that anyone seems to mind fluffy), but don't worry, we'll get back to the last item on the list soon. Enjoy! **

**Chapter 18 - The Engagement**

_Where is he taking me?_ Hermione held Severus' hand as they walked down the moonlit path. _Wait, there's no way we could be going to…_ She stopped walking, but held onto Severus' hand, causing him to stop and look back at her. She could see him raise his signature eyebrow, assuring her that she would enjoy whatever surprise lay in store for her would surely be one she would enjoy. She grabbed his hand a little bit tighter as they walked back down the dock and into the boathouse. As she caught sight of the spot where he had been laying the night she watched him get attacked by that horrible snake. _I can't even imagine what my life would be like today if he hadn't survived. _As she noticed the blood still staining the window she felt cold spread throughout her body, as if it was lining whatever layered right below her skin. The only place that wasn't cold was her hand, still in Severus', which served as a reminder that he _had_ survived and was alive and well at her side.

They stood for a second, looking down at the ground that had changed both their lives. She was startled out of her recollections of that night when Severus took her other hand and pulled her body to face his own as he began to speak. _Oh I could listen to that voice forever._ As his silky words wrapped around her, the cold slowly disappeared and was replaced by the warmth of his sweet words, his love for her, and the light in his eyes.

Her heart ached for him as he described how he had accepted death that night, and how he had felt he didn't deserve more than he had gotten. _He's wrong! He deserves everything! _The aching in her heart transformed into a swelling feeling as he began describing the way he saw her. _Could this possibly be me he's describing?_ As she heard him say that she was his reason for living, she began to notice a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach. _These are all good things, why do I feel nervous? _He looked so amazing standing there in the moonlight, his dark eyes shining as she had never seen them before. Her question as to why she was so nervous was answered as she heard the words 'I will spend the rest of my life making sure you don't regret that choice', the heaviness of her stomach seemed to quadruple. _He's not doing what I think he's doing. _She was too absorbed in the look on his face to notice the tear sliding down her cheek.

As she saw him move to kneel down, time slowed down almost to a halt. She saw in slow motion as his knee hit the ground, she listened with rapture as he said the words she had come to love about never wanting to leave her side, and she knew what was coming as he reached into his pocket and produced the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. She finally rejoined the moment as she heard his final question to her.

"Hermione Jean Granger, will you marry me?"

He saw her eyes light up as he finished what had been the most nerve-wracking monologue of his life. Before he knew what was happening his beautiful witch had joined him on her knees. He felt her delicate fingers cradle his face as she looked deep into his eyes.

"Yes. Of course." He saw the tears dissipate as her face split into an earsplitting grin. He felt his face reciprocate in the split seconds before his lips met hers. This kiss was pure ecstasy, not slow and sensual, not hard and heated, simply the physical incarnation of two people mutually feeling the purest form of joy a human soul is capable of experiencing. When he felt her lips moved on his, he felt that his heart would burst. _She's going to be mine. I never have to lose her._

As they broke apart, his shaking hands moved to put the ring on her finger. As soon as he felt it slip past her knuckle, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him to her. It was fortunate that her healing spells had run their completion on the scars on his neck; she held him to her with a force one would not expect a witch of her size capable of producing. He intertwined his arms around her waist and pulled her in with equal force.

In that second, the blood on the wall ceased to matter. The thirty some years he had spent lonely, miserable, and alone were no longer of any consequence. The fact that she had been overlooked, underappreciated, and cast aside by her undeserving peers no longer seemed like a hardship. The war they had just fought did not weigh on them as it previously had. All that mattered was that she was his and he was hers.

When they finally broke apart, she looked at him and couldn't stifle a giggle. To her surprise, he joined her. Laughing together, they rose, still too completely enveloped in their own happiness to notice the rest of the world.

"I have one more surprise for you, my beautiful fiancée." He appreciated the look of amazement on her face as he took her hand and began to lead her out of the boathouse. As they approached the castle, he couldn't help but think of all the times he had made this walk by himself. He had walked into the castle with nerves, with loneliness, with fear, but never with this much joy and, more unfamiliar to him than any other emotion, hope. With Hermione by his side, he was able to open himself up to all the things he had resisted for so long: hope for a long life with someone who loved him, hope for a family, hope to actually live at his property at the Meadows, hope to grow old and grey and sit on the rocking chair on his front porch. He looked at the beaming, young witch at his side and knew it was all because of her.

As they neared the castle, Hermione began to hear the dull sound of chatter coming from the open doorway to the great hall. Severus offered her his arm, in another old-fashioned gesture, and lead her into the room. Hermione gasped as she looked around the room to see a sea of smiling faces and reddened as they all burst into applause. The first to sprint forwards and hug her was the long, red hair that could only belong to Ginny Weasley. While Ginny was hugging her, Hermione saw Harry step forward to shake Severus' hand. In the overwhelming next few minutes the newly-engaged couple was passed around by the entire Weasley clan, including a surprisingly supportive Ron, who blushed as he and Hermione shared an awkward hug. From the arms of an enthusiastic hug from Minerva McGonall, Hermione saw the twinkle in Albus Dumbledore's blue eyes as he congratulated Severus on his excellent choice of partner.

Hermione was surprised to see some of the other Hogwarts professors in the mix. When his turn came, Hagrid swept Hermione and a very startled Severus into a bone-breaking hug that lifted both sets of feet off the floor. Finally, the last pair to greet them was Remus and Tonks, As Hermione gave Tonks a side hug, as the latter had baby Teddy in her arms, Severus shook Lupin's hand.

"Thank you for organizing this for us, Remus." Severus' silky voice was genuine and civil.

Remus replied with utmost sincerity, "it was truly the least I could do. After what you two have done for me? For our family? The least I could do."

Hermione looked at the two former-enemies with awe in her face. "You're friends now? When did this happen?" Her fiancé smiled and actually cast a small laugh in Remus' direction.

"You would be surprised how many fences are mended in the planning of a surprised engagement party." Despite the softness he had recently proved himself capable of displaying, his sarcasm was also alive and well. But his sarcasm was part of what Hermione loved about her Severus. _Yes, I finally get to call him mine._ She dissolved into giggles and gave her former professor a one-armed hug, carefully not letting go of Severus' hand with her other arm.

After a few more minutes, someone passed them glasses of champagne. After not too long, they could tell that someone in the crowd had already partaken when a cry of 'speech!' reached Hermione's ears. To Hermione's great surprise, the flowing chocolate of Severus' voice pierced the silence that had filled the corner of the great hall in which they were gathered.

"You all know I am not one who enjoys public words, or crowds, or public displays of anything. With this in mind, it should be quite obvious what a momentous occasion it is that I am happily standing in front of you. Tonight I have been given the greatest gift that can be given. The exceptional Hermione Granger has agreed to be my wife, and I could not be happier or more honored to call her mine. As you all have come to be both of our families, we both thank you for being here to make this night perfect."

With that, a round of clapping, cheering, and at least one whoop of joy from a mildly intoxicated Hagrid swept through the great hall. The merriment continued, but Hermione and Severus began to drift towards the side of the room. They were approached by Albus, who whispered something in Severus' ear before turning to Hermione. He congratulated her again, but before he rejoined Minerva in her conversation with Molly Weasley he quietly asked if she could stop by his office at her convenience the next morning. After Albus had gone, Severus took Hermione's hand and quietly led her out of the great hall.

"What was that about, Severus?" Hermione asked as they began walking through the castle.

"Albus simply mentioned that my old quarters had been restored to their previous condition and that we were welcome to stay in the castle tonight, and thereafter, if we so desired." He conveyed factual information, yet his tone spoke volumes more. Forgetting about her meeting with Dumbledore, she caught his mood at once and their pace slowly increased as they approached the dungeons. She followed him into his office in the back of the potions classroom in which she had spent so many hours, and was surprised as he waved his wand over a tapestry in the back of the room only to have it slowly pull to the side to reveal a spiral staircase. They ascended what felt to Hermione like at least three stories, but when Severus showed her off of the top stair he was greeted by her gasp.

"Oh, Severus, it's beautiful!" Her eyes stared out the window to her right with breathless wonder. The room was quite large. In one corner was a large four-poster bed with black tapestries hung around it, looking as if, when sealed, the bed would be completely darkened even in the brightest of daylight. In the adjacent corner there was a large sofa across the wall, with a coffee table and two cushy looking armchairs on either side. Across the entire back wall was floor to ceiling shelving filled full of books. The third corner, situated on the opposite side of the spiral staircase, featured a fully stocked kitchen complete with an island and four stools. Despite all of this, by far the most salient feature of the room was the overwhelmingly large window that covered a majority of the wall to the right of the staircase. While Hermione had only felt she had ascended three stories, they were clearly high up in one of the turrets of the castle. The window looked out across the lake, showcasing the gorgeous mountains behind it. It was the kind of view one could stare at for hours, and she had half a mind to do just that.

While she admired the view, Severus had come behind her and was now holding her to him so that while his arms wrapped around her waist her back pressed into his front. He slowly kissed the top of her head as she marveled at the expansive view.

"Is this really where you live?" She turned around to face him without leaving his arms.

"Only while school is in session," he answered softly.

"If I had this view and that library I don't think I'd leave."

"With you here I just might not." And with this, he pulled the knuckles of her hand, ring shining in the moonlight, to his lips. "Are you happy, my love?"

Her face softened as she stroked his cheek with her other hand. "Severus, you are all it takes to make me the happiest woman in the world. All of this," her eyes scanned the immense library and the gorgeous view, "this is just icing on the cake. What makes me happiest is this." And with that, she stood up on her toes to press her lips into his. He wrapped himself around her, melting into the heat of the kiss. Before she knew it her feet had left the ground and, without removing his lips from hers, he carried her over to the bed and stretched out next to her.

She pressed her body into his as they kissed, his tongue sending little electric shocks through her body as it swept against her own. He reached around her body to pull her top leg over his, his hand sliding down from her lower back as her leg hitched around his waist. She gasped at the increased level of contact this provided. She was beginning to kiss her way down his neck when she first sensed his hands trying to push her away instead of pull her in. She finally whimpered slightly as he pulled his lips from hers and looked panting into her eyes.

He answered the hurt and confusion in her eyes, still panting, "I fear you overestimate my powers of self control, my dear." In answer, she pressed herself longingly into him, eyes seeming to plead for something as she ran her fingers down his arm.

"We have our whole lives for ravishing, my dear. Sleep now." He planted a slow, lingering kiss on her lips, followed by a chaste kiss to the tip of her nose. With that, he gathered her into his arms, pulling her head onto his chest in their now-habitual sleeping position. She wanted to resist, but with all of the excitement of the day she found herself drifting slowly off to sleep. Severus remained awake a few minutes longer. He spent his last waking moments basking in gratitude to whatever deity he could think of for the beautiful witch in his arms, the fact that he now got to share the chambers in which he had so long suffered in loneliness, and the fact that she was now on the way to becoming his.


	19. Chapter 19: Uncharted Territory

**AN: So I meant to sit down and write Mauraders part III, and this chapter accidentally fell out of my keyboard. One of my lovely reviewers mentioned Severus' self control and, cough cough...this chapter is of the steamier variety. The first of the chapters that actually merits the M rating, so don't say I didn't warn you. I promise after this Severus and Hermione will finally get back to the list.**

**Also, I want to thank DutchGirl01, ArabellaGrace, Cloelius Princess, HarryPGinnyW4eva, and Blue Night Fairy for such regular reviews! I love all the reviews that have been left, but you guys seriously rock.**

**And now, without further ado...**

**Chapter 19 - Uncharted Territory**

Hermione awoke in the semi-darkness of early morning looking up at the velvety curtains of a bed that was most certainly not her own. Shaking the fog from her mind, she looked down and saw they were both still in their clothes from the night before. Severus' button down shirt was magically wrinkle-free, but the row of buttons on her blouse had shifted off center as she slept. Looking down, she gave a small gasp as her eyes rested on the large adornment to her left hand, which was currently resting on Severus' chest.

"I'm afraid it was not a dream, my love. You are now permanently stuck with a Slytherin."

Hermione smiled and turned her face up to look into her favorite dark eyes. "I'll have you know that this particular Slytherin happens to be my favorite person in the known world." She punctuated her sentence by planting a quick kiss on his chest. "But how lovely of you to demonstrate your point so aptly. May I ask just how long you had been watching me sleep?"

Severus grinned cheekily in response, "Not long enough to be considered improper, but long enough to cultivate the desire to do this." He wrapped his arms around her and slid her light body up along his so that her lips were within kissing distance. While his lips explored hers, his hand wrapped itself in the messy, brown curls behind her head. He again had to be the one to pull away from the kiss. Hermione, who had been in the process of wrapping her top leg higher around his legs to pull him closer to her body, whimpered noticeably at the loss of contact.

"Please, Severus, I... I need you." He scanned the look in her eyes, the intensity of her want whittling away at his closely-held self control.

"I will not let you destroy my one and only chance to do something the right way, and in the proper order." He couldn't bear her crestfallen expression and sighed deeply before speaking again, stressing his first word. "…_but_ I do believe there might be some middle ground that I we could explore without causing any lasting damage to your virtue. That is if you're interested—"

Her lips cut his sentence short before he could even finish the word. Finally having met with an agreeable compromise, Severus allowed himself to disappear fully into her kiss in a way he had not allowed himself to do before. He felt the sparks from her lips that reached deep down inside him. He felt the pressure as her chest pressed into his own. Savoring the closeness and contact created as her leg wound around his waist, he pressed himself against her, hearing her gasp as their bodies made contact.

She began to press her hips against his, loving the way the pleasure it created seemed to shoot up her body into her stomach. If this was how her body felt through two layers of clothing, she feared she might not survive for the pleasure when he finally took her as his own. She kept pressing rhythmically against him as they kissed when she felt his lips leave hers. Suddenly she found herself being flipped onto her back, looking directly into Severus' eyes as he crouched above her.

Heightening the sparking electricity of the tension between them, Severus hovered frustratingly close to her lips without closing the final distance between them. She felt another jolt of electricity shoot out from her core as his velvety voice cut through the silence. "You've really never partaken of anything in this realm before?"

She loved the way he phrased even the raunchiest of topics in such a dignified manner. Blushing, she responded honestly, "Before you, two kisses. Neither were much good. I assume you'll have to take the lead." She looked up at him, but found a different expression than she expected.

"It may surprise you my dear, but that places you exactly two kisses ahead of me." Her eyes widened in surprise. _Not even Lily? No one while he was under cover as a Death Eater? _He spoke, yet again answering her unspoken questions, "My appearance as an asexual dungeon bat made it fairly easy for me to avoid unwanted advances from either side." Her look of surprise transformed into one of utmost adoration. _I get him all to myself. Just us. No one else. _A thrill of exhilaration shot through her body as he finished, "I guess we will have to do some exploring together then, won't we?"

With that and a devilish smile he once again pressed himself into her kiss. After he had ensured they were both thoroughly back in the moment, he began kissing down her neck. As she felt his teeth gently tease her jugular, she threw back her head with a jolt of pleasure. His lips didn't leave her neck, but she felt his long fingers begin undoing the small pearl buttons on her blouse. The cold air hitting her skin brought her eyes up to meet his as her shirt fell open to reveal the lavender lace of bra.

He looked deep in her eyes, questioning if she was still comfortable. Hermione nodded slightly and bit her lip in either anticipation or nerves, he couldn't tell. Severus took what he hoped was not too obvious of a deep breath as his fingers made their way gently down from her shoulders onto her chest. He felt her sharp intake of breath as his hands crossed the boundary onto her lace-covered flesh. For a moment he stared into her eyes, neither daring to breathe as his hands explored her body in a way no man ever had before. He watched the rapture in her eyes as she relished his slow, sensual touch. Everywhere his fingers went, they left a trail of tiny sparks in her body, only serving to exacerbate the throbbing she could already feel in her tightening core.

As he continued exploring her body, she sat up and shrugged off her now completely unbuttoned shirt. He inhaled sharply as, instead of lying back, her hands rose to the buttons of his own shirt. His hands froze on her body, his eyes closing as he savored the feeling of her dainty fingers slowly working their way down his chest. After she got to the last button, he felt her delicate lips brush against his as she pulled his shirt out from his waistband. She prompted him to open his eyes with a gentle nudge of her nose, and she peered deep into his eyes as he allowed his shirt to slide off of his shoulders. Without breaking the thread of their gaze, she brought her hands up to feel his chest. She had touched him in the course of healing and checking his wounds, and she had felt his muscles through his clothes the times they had slept next to each other, but she still marveled at the newly revealed spectacle of his body. A smattering of scars marred his chest, new and old, some long, others short, but none managed to obscure his beauty. He was still slender, but his teaching robes had obscured a very well defined physique.

After letting her delicate fingers trace the outlines of his chest, he pressed forward to kiss her, pinning her back down to the bed. The first instance of contact between their bare skin served as flint for the cloud of longing that had built as they made their first tentative explorations of each others' bodies. This kiss was the explosion. Her nails dug into his back while his hands covered every inch of her torso. He felt her heavy breath in his ear as he kissed down her jawline. With a silkily muttered incantation she felt her bra vanish to finally complete the flesh-on-flesh connection of their torsos. He noticed that she held her breath as his kisses worked their way down her neck and to her chest. She gasped audibly when his lips found their target, sending a bolt of pleasure through her core as he sucked her nipple into his mouth. She felt as his tongue swirled around her, sending unexpected waves of pleasure throughout her body.

He could think of nothing but her body as he closed his eyes and explored her with his mouth, but he froze and jerked his eyes open as he felt one of her delicate hands gently touch him through the fabric of his pants. He sought her eyes, but they were already looking directly into his, seeking permission or reassurance, he couldn't tell which. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to find words if he tried to speak, so he answered by pressing his hips gently into her hand. Interpreting that as her permission, he saw her eyes light up as the pressure of her hand increased. She was elated to hear a guttural moan escape his lips as he pressed even further towards her hand. She continued her ministrations, never breaking the eye contact that seemed to keep both of their nerves at bay as they ventured into this mutually unexplored territory.

She tentatively walked her fingers up to begin trying to unfasten the button of his pants, but he pulled back. "Ladies first," the corners of his mouth twitched upwards as he spoke, but the shadow of his playful smile didn't quell the fire she could see in his dark eyes. She nodded her assent as he undid the fastenings of her jeans, and lifted her hips up as he slowly slid them off her hips. He lay down, resting his body along the side of hers. He placed a quick but passionate kiss her lips before he pulled away to reestablish their eye contact. She inhaled and held the breath in as his hand slowly trailed down her flat stomach to the border of the lavender lace underwear that matched the vanished bra she had worn.

Nodding slightly in permission, it was all Hermione could do to keep her eyes open and on his as his hand dipped below the fabric of her underwear to the folds of skin that lay beneath. Severus' eyes widened as he felt how wet she had become. _She really does want me_, he thought to himself, relishing this final, physical evidence that the brown haired goddess in front of him could actually be attracted by someone like him. Eyes never leaving hers, he muttered the spell to send her underwear the same way as her vanished bra as he deftly began to work his thin, skilled fingers up and down as she jerked in pleasure.

_How does he know how to do this so well? _She knew the amount of research she had done to prepare herself should a situation like this arise had left her with the feeling that there must be a gap between research and practical application, but as she gasped and writhed under his seemingly expert touch her mind couldn't figure out how he knew to touch her just where she wanted most to be touched. He watched with rapture as she began climbing under his hands. She had finally closed her eyes and thrown her head back in her wordless pleasure, so he was free to take in the spectacle that was her gorgeous body as she bucked against his hand.

He saw her eyes return to seek out his and heard her cry as she began to come undone. "Severus!" It was somewhere between a plea and an exclamation. He pulled his body as close to her side as he could as his fingers deftly pushed her over the edge of the cliff. As she came undone he leaned over her to press his lips to hers, steadying her shaking and twitching body beneath him as she rode out the waves of pleasure that kept washing over her even after he had removed his hand. She pressed her body into his and gasped into his mouth as her movement stilled. When she finally regained her ability to think, she ran her hand through his hair to pull him into her lips for a slow, lingering kiss.

When her eyes opened, they found his looking at her laden with hope and questions. Trying to answer whatever query was pulling the worry into his brow, she sighed and broke the silence.

"That was indescribably wonderful." Her voice still shook from exertion.

"Satisfactory?" The genuine worry in his tone hurt her heart as a clue of the insecurity that still lay hidden behind his stoic front.

"Words cannot describe the wonderfulness of what I just felt. How did you know how to do that if you haven't…?" Her words trailed off. He smiled and placed a gentle kiss on her lips as he spoke.

"It would appear that our bodies are quite compatible together. Other than the empirical research I might have done on the topic, I acted purely on instinct. Judging from some of the more interesting noises which I have never before heard you make, it would seem your body didn't fault me for any lack of experience." He finished more confidently than he began, largely as a result of the smile steadily growing on her face.

"Instinct you say?" It was her turn to display the devilish grin that usually adorned his face in such moments. He smiled and nodded. With a move he did not see coming, she managed to pounce on him in such a way that he ended up pinned under her, looking up at her naked form and the look of triumph in her face. She took a moment to stroke him through the fabric of his pants before pulling her hand away and, keeping her eyes trained on his, speaking –with more than a touch of pride in her voice- the same incantation he had used to vanish her undergarments. Before she could look down to see what she had revealed, she smiled a laughing smile at the look of surprise in his eyes.

"I'm a quick learner," her bell-like laughter chimed out.

Returning her smile with almost as much pride, he purred, "My little know it all." She planted a quick kiss on his lips before pulling back to see what had been pressing on her through his neatly pressed trousers. She inhaled sharply when she saw the full extent of his glorious body. She had no frame of reference from which to judge, but whatever she had imagined hadn't been nearly generous enough. He caught the look of awe and nerves in her eyes and smiled a smile that spread warmth throughout her body and somehow managed to dispel her nerves. She carefully took hold of him and let her instincts guide her.

The second he felt the pressure of her hands where he had never been touched before, he felt his eyes roll briefly back in his head. Pure ecstasy. Whatever he had imagined it would feel like to have another person's hands on him, this was far better. Seeing his pleasure, Hermione gained both confidence and speed as she pleasured him. He couldn't believe it when he felt the first groan escape his lips, but as she quickly took control of the situation the noises he made were soon the last things on his mind. He felt himself climbing close to the point of no return and instinctively tried to rein himself back. Sensing the change in him, he heard her seductive voice in the silence, "Let go, Severus. I want to feel you let go."

Hearing his name on her lips was his undoing. He closed his eyes and succumbed. He let go to the beautiful, still naked witch above him, to the idea that his years of untouched solitude were finally behind him, to the idea that she was his and only his, and to the irresistible pleasure emanating from the delicate hands still wringing the pleasure from his body. Mirroring his earlier gesture, she leaned over his body and laid her lips on his as the tremors of his pleasure rolled over him, pressing her naked body against his until his ragged breathing began to steady.

When she felt his heartbeat returning to its normal speed, she curled into her favorite spot against his side, resting her head in the crook of his shoulder and resting her face on his chest. Borrowing his words from earlier, she looked up to see his face as she spoke.

"Satisfactory?"

"In all my years I have never heard a greater understatement than describing what just happened as merely satisfactory." He leaned down to kiss her smiling lips. "I love you, Hermione."

"As I love you."

With this, she rested her head on his chest. Completely sated and content to remain in each others' arms for as long as possible, both relaxed into the comfortable bed and listened to the first sounds of the birds around the grounds just beginning to stir. Neither knew who fell asleep first, but both slept in complete and utter happiness and peace, clinging to each other as they knew they would every night from then on.


	20. Chapter 20: The Marauders, Part III

**Chapter 20 - The Marauders, Part III**

Severus awoke to find the bright light of mid morning streaming in the open window onto his bare chest. Realizing he was alone, he sat up in a panic before he cognized that the sounds that had awakened him were coming from the kitchen. He glanced over and felt the smile spread across his face and deep into his soul as he saw the curly haired, bare footed Hermione Granger, clad only in his white dress shirt, loading the last cup of tea onto a tray of what smelled suspiciously like pancakes.

"I have yet to determine whether or not you're only a marvelous dream," he said, leaning back on his elbows, the bed sheet lying tantalizingly across his waist.

He reveled in the melodious sound of her laughter as she replied, "I've been pinching myself all morning to answer the same question, my love. Let me save you the bruises," she had traversed the room and leaned in to lay the tray on his lap and give him a quick kiss, "we're both real."

Having deposited the tray on his lap, she bounced carefully onto the bed next to him, sat cross-legged, and dragged a plate of pancakes into her lap. His eyes followed her every move, the slightly awe struck smile never leaving his face.

"Pwees tew me yoo rike paancakes," she muttered through an indelicately large mouthful. Severus' smile evolved into a full-fledged grin.

"At this moment I am quite certain there is no creature in existence that is more beautiful than you are." His silky voice swirled around her like butter.

"Be that as it may, the pancakes hold far more nutrients, so eat up." She giggled as she spoke and he felt his happiness might cause him to explode. As he took his first bite, her pride swelled at the look of surprise and delight on his face.

"She cooks too." His approval made her giggle and fake a theatrical curtsy as she chewed another bite. They ate in silence for a few minutes, when Hermione, again through a mouthful of pancakes, spoke.

"Fo I'f been finking abouth Thirius," her words were barely intelligible through the food she was still chewing, which occasioned a hearty laugh from Severus. She looked at him as if to ask 'what?', but didn't venture another sentence as she was still mid-mouthful.

"Your brain never really has been able to wait for your mouth, has it?" He asked with a tone of amusement in his voice. Now taking a sip of tea, she shook her head vigorously, causing Severus to chuckle again. She carefully finished her sip and, mouth officially cleared, spoke with her normal level of enunciation.

"Sirius' body was never found. It disappeared into the veil. And it did so in a room full of witnesses, Death Eaters, students, and aurors. We aren't going to be able to use the sleeping spell we've been using on everyone else because his body has to disappear." She took another, markedly smaller, bite as she finished, obviously awaiting a response.

Severus chewed thoughtfully on a piece of bacon as he contemplated what she had just said. Apparently his internal sarcastic monologue had finally woken up. He huffed a puff of laughter to himself, occasioning an eyebrow raise from the young witch sitting across the bed from him. Seeing her questioning look, he swallowed his bacon and elaborated.

"I was just thinking how many Death Eaters there are whose bodies I would gladly volunteer to shove beyond the veil." He took another bite of bacon, but Hermione's eyes began widening at an alarming rate.

"Severus, you're a genius!" She seemed to levitate off the bed with excitement. His look indicated that he still had not connected whatever dots she had jointed to create that reaction. Hermione continued, lapsing into her rapid sentences-without-spaces-or-punctuation mode of speaking, "there are so many Death Eaters left out there, and it's not like the Ministry is going to be able to round them all up any time soon, and there's still a great chance some of the more dangerous ones are going to do something that hurts someone, so it would really be killing two birds with one stone, and, well, we'd have to sedate him heavily and switch them at exactly the right moment, but I think if we…" she finally stopped for air and noticed the smile of amusement playing across Severus' face. She frowned, "you're not going to call me cute again, are you?"

"Well now I'm not," he wiggled his eyebrows playfully at her while he spoke indicating that she had guessed exactly what was going through his mind.

"But what do you think of the _idea_?" she asked, trying to drag him back to the topic at hand.

"If I correctly understood the profusion of words that you managed to fit into one breath, I would have to say that it's positively Slytherin of you, my dear." Seeing her reaction, he quickly added, "and I mean that in the most complimentary of ways."

Her smile changed to one of pride, "thank you" she said, biting snappily into another pancake.

"Perhaps Dumbledore's hat placed you in the wrong house after all, not that you don't posess…" Severus' sentence was cut short as Hermione gasped, eyes suddenly wide, and jumped off the bed.

"Dumbledore! I nearly forgot! He asked me to drop by his office this morning!" Her eyes darted about the room in such a frenzy that Severus couldn't help but chuckle.

"First, you look like a character in one of those cartoon shows for muggle children. It's early yet. No need to go dashing off to see Albus this second," he pushed the breakfast tray off his lap and rose to join her in the middle of the room, "especially not wearing nothing but my shirt."

He bent down and planted a slow kiss on Hermione's lips. She raised up on her tip toes, meeting him halfway and bringing one hand through his silky hair.

"Well, if I remember correctly, someone vanished my undergarments last night." She smiled cheekily at him as she spoke.

"As much as it pains me to do so, we can't have you running off to see the headmaster like this." He waved his wand at her. First, she felt the return of her undergarments. However, Severus didn't stop there. He continued waving his wand as his shirt unbuttoned from her slender form and flew across the room, landing on the back of a chair. As he continued his magic, she felt the appearance of an emerald green bodice that would have resembled a modest version of a corset were it not for the intricate woven straps that snaked up from the top, around her shoulders and neck, and down to the back. As the straps wove her shirt together, she felt form fitting, simple, black dress pants form around her legs. She also grew a few inches as practical, black heels with green details appeared on her feet. Finally, she felt her hair sweep itself up into an intricate bun behind her head.

Glancing in the full-length mirror between Severus' bed and the set of drawers in the far corner of the room, Hermione gasped, fingers tracing the outlines of her intricate top.

"That's more like it," Severus' silky voice lowered to a whisper as he came up behind her and held her to his body, both of them admiring her image in the mirror.

"We should begin examining the possibility that once we're married I might never dress myself again," she intoned with wonder. "Severus, this is beautiful. I mean, it's suspiciously Slytherin colored, but even so…" She turned to face him and planted a lingering kiss on his lips, pleased not to have to stand on her toes to do so.

Squaring herself in preparation for her meeting, she assumed a back-to-business tone of voice. "Okay, I will be back as soon as I figure out what Dumbledore wants. In the mean time, do you think you can select a lucky Death Eater to take Sirius' place?"

"Yes ma'am," Severus drawled in mock submission, causing Hermione to grin back at him as she headed towards the spiral staircase. When the top of her bun had vanished, Severus sunk into his spot on the couch and lay back, letting his mind replay the events of that morning as he absentmindedly waved his wand to clear the dishes from their breakfast.

When Hermione returned to Severus' rooms she was astounded to find Severus had magically suspended a map to float in the middle of the room and had erected a setup that looked like a cross between something from the muggle movie about John Nash and a muggle police station corkboard. He was pacing feverishly in front of it, mumbling something under his breath.

"Love, exactly how long was I gone?" Hermione cautiously approached, not having seen this particular side of Severus.

"You would think the hard part would have been picking only one Death Eater, but that was actually quite simple. The problem is _finding_ that one Death Eater. They are, as it turns out, irritatingly mobile."

Hermione was peering under some of the scribbled notes attached to the map as she spoke, "Who's the lucky winner?" Silence. She turned around to see why Severus wasn't responding and found his face several shades paler than it normally was. Seeing his appearance change so drastically, she approached and grabbed one of his hands with hers. She was going to speak, but thought the better of it and waited for Severus to speak.

"Dolohov," he said quietly, not looking up to meet her eyes.

"Severus…" her words said his name, but her tone clearly conveyed the message 'you don't have to do that'. She squeezed his hand as she continued, "I'm fine, love." Her hand was on his cheek, tilting his eyes up to meet hers. "I'm fine. We can grab any Death Eater, lord knows so many of them deserve it."

"It has to be him. Every time I see your scar….I couldn't protect you. I know that, but I have to do _something_. You're mine." He said the last sentence as an explanation, not a possessive claim. He was peering so genuinely, almost meekly in her eyes, she could see through his dark eyes to a frightened young Severus, unable to defend his mother from the abusive blows of an alcoholic father. She gently brought her lips to his, not letting go of his eyes until after their lips met. It was a very chaste kiss, but as she breathed her support through his lips she felt his body relax significantly.

"So where have we narrowed it down to?" She said, plopping down on one of the comfy armchairs facing the map. Severus smiled and began showing her the progress he had made in tracking Dolohov's whereabouts.

As the light was beginning to dim as the sun drew closer to the lake, Hermione's anxious attempts at reading was interrupted by a bumping sound coming up the stairs. _Whew…that took too long._ Hermione had reluctantly allowed Severus to 'fetch' Dolohov alone, after he quite vehemently took the stand that he was not going to put his future bride in any further danger. As a practiced wizard, seasoned in combat, and professed feminist she had objected quite vocally, but seeing the look on Severus' face when he begged her not to go had tipped the scales in her mind. Instead, she had been waiting anxiously for the last hour, trying to pretend she was not concerned for his safety. Now, she saw Severus come up the stairs with the unconscious body of Dolohov semi-floating up the stairs behind him. She couldn't help but giggle, knowing that Severus was fully capable of lifting him high enough that his head didn't knock against the stairs every few feet.

"Any trouble?" She asked, hoping to have disguised the tone of worry in her voice well enough that Severus wouldn't take it as a lack of confidence.

"None whatsoever. Between your locating spell and this cloak he didn't even see me once. It kind of took the fun out of it." Severus mused, as he conjured a table in the middle of the room and guided Dolohov's drooping form onto it.

"So, now I take the cloak and the time turner while you ready some of your pre-made polyjuice potion?" Hermione was back to business now that she knew he was safe.

"Yes ma'am," Severus intoned again, flashing her his patented sarcastic smile as the cloak traded hands. After a few flicks of the time turner and a swish of the cloak, Hermione was back with a handful of medium-length brown hairs. Severus handed her the potion bottle, but interjected as she was reaching to deposit the hairs.

"And you're sure those are from Sirius in his human form, not his anamagus form, yes?" He glanced up at Hermione, wondering if she would catch the subtle jab he had just thrown at her.

"Trust me, a girl spends a fortnight as a cat and she will NEVER make that mistake again." He was pleased to see that she had taken the joke in the spirit in which it was intended. _I will never get used to how easy it is to talk to her, _he marveled. It hadn't been long ago that all human conversations were quite trying ordeals, yet in a matter of weeks he was tossing jokes back and forth with Hermione…_almost as if you were a normal person._ He quieted his internal voice of worry with a look at the ring on Hermione's finger. _She's my chance at a normal life._

He stroked Dolohov's throat as Hermione poured the polyjuice potion into his mouth. The transformation looked just as grotesque when the subject was unconscious, but nevertheless a minute later the realistic duplicate form of Sirius Black was lying on the table. Hermione waved her wand over him and his ragged black robes transformed into a carbon copy of those worn by Sirius the night of the battle at the department of mysteries.

"You know he'll have to be awakened at the proper moment to make it look believable?" Severus murmured as the last shreds of cloth finished changing color.

"I'll leave that part to you. You can deal with placing Dolohov, while I grab the real Sirius and pull him under the cloak."

"And you're sure the time turner is capable of keeping time still for long enough for us to make the switch?" Severus looked questioningly at Hermione.

"I made a few modifications to it's functional set of enchantments. Care for a demonstration?" Without waiting for an answer, Hermione quickly palmed the time turner, walked over to the now-frozen Severus and carefully pulled his long hair back into a tie, walked back to her previous spot on the other side of the room, and released the time turner. She saw a flicker of confusion on Severus' face as he cognized what had just happened, but then saw his face change into clearly faked irritation.

"Impossible woman," he said, shaking his head. She simply grinned at him and walked to his side, throwing first the time turner and then the cloak over his head.

"Ready?" her bell like voice rang out across the seemingly empty room. Severus once again levitated Dolohov-now-Sirius, but this time kept him tightly pressed to Severus' other side so he would be sure to be covered by the cloak and the chain of the time turner.

"Ready," Severus silky voice rang out for an instant, then in a rustle of the invisible cloak they were gone.


	21. Chapter 21: The Last Marauder

**Chapter 20 - The Last Marauder**

As usual, Hermione and Severus got to the location a few minutes before Sirius had died. This one was easier than some of the incidents for which they did not have access to a memory of the event they could review. They had reviewed Hermione's penseived memory of Sirius' death (and the rest of the battle at the department of mysteries) ad nauseum earlier that day, finding where to stand when so as not to get accidentally blasted by a stray curse, how much time they would have to make the switch, and exactly how they would escape once they had switched real Sirius for polyjuice Sirius.

She watched the scene unfold as if it was a dream, because so many times in her nightmares she had woken up to these exact events unfolding over and over in her mind. The only part that shocked and hurt her was, as past-Dolohov sent the curse at past-Hermione, she felt a shivering tremor run uncontrollably through Severus' body, still pressed tight to hers under the cloak, and his hand tightened on her arm almost to a painful degree. Knowing they could make no sounds, she simply pressed into him in what she hoped was a comforting way. _I'm fine. I'm here with you. I made it. _She tried to will her words into his mind via osmosis, and he seemed to relax slightly at the feel of her pressing into him.

As the moment arrived, Hermione slowly twisted the time turner in her hand, making seconds pass as minutes. They saw the bright green curse emanate from Bellatrix's wand as Sirius stood next to the ominous looking archway. In a split second, Hermione pulled Sirius away while Severus shoved Dolohov-now-Sirius into the exact spot where Sirius had stood. The entire switch was made in the time it took the curse to travel half a foot, at the glacial pace to which time had slowed down. In a fit of wisdom, Hermione cast a full body bind on Sirius, as well as a silencing charm, knowing that he might not take kindly to the confusion he was about to experience. At the last second, Severus cast the spell to wake Dolohov-now-Sirius out of his enchanted sleep.

She released the time turner to allow time to go at full speed and felt another bone-crunching squeeze from Severus' hand as polyjuiced Dolohov's eyes widened in terror as he recognized the curse coming towards him. Making sure the real Sirius was tucked into both time turner and invisibility cloak, the odd trio apparated away as Hermione started flipping the hourglass forwards.

They landed with a clunk on the floor of the Burrow. Hermione had owled Harry for the permission to use that as a transition location for Sirius, knowing how bad things could get if Sirius was secreted away by someone he not only believed to be a loyal Death Eater, but who also happened to be one of his lifelong enemies. Harry had been waiting for their arrival and, as Hermione grabbed Sirius' wand (just in case), she noticed that he had invited Arthur and Remus to be there as well. _Smart. Thank you, Harry. _Hermione was grateful she wouldn't have to do all the talking this time.

Sirius' eyes were wide in fear as Hermione unlooped the time turner from both his and Severus' neck. She magically guided his body into a chair before removing the body bind and the silencing spell. His eyes never left Severus and, body bind or not, his face was twisted with a mixture of rage and hatred. The second he felt his limbs were his own again, he flew out of the chair and stood up in a fury.

"Give me back my wand, Miss Granger." Sirius' voice shook with anger.

"Please sit down, Sirius. We have a lot to explain to you." Hermione tried to keep her voice as calm and soothing as possible.

"Give me back my wand!" his voice filled the room. "I don't know how this slimy Death Eater got us all here, or what is happening to the others at the ministry, but I have been waiting twenty years to give Snivelus what he deserves, and—"

Before Snape had a chance to even consider reacting, Hermione had left his side, wand in hand, and was pacing towards Sirius like an angry bull. Upon further discussion after the fact, several people in the room could have sworn they saw tiny sparks coming from somewhere in her bushy curls as they flowed behind her like a cape. She came three feet from Severus before the words began.

"YOU WILL SHUT YOUR MOUTH THIS SECOND, YOU UNGRATEFUL SWINE! You will sit down and you will listen and you will never call him that name again or so help me Merlin I will hex you so badly you'll wish we'd let Bellatrix get you!" Her eyes were shooting fire. Her nostrils flared with her heavy breathing as her heavy glare bore Sirius back down into his chair.

Sirius seemed to be completely and utterly taken aback. As he sat down, he took his first glance around the room and noticed Harry, Remus, and Arthur, but his gaze was still fixed on the towering and angry Hermione that stood looming over him. "You look different," he said meekly, with an undertone of confusion.

"I'm not usually quite this irritated," Hermione sniped back.

"No, I mean yes, but you look…older. You too, Harry." Sirius addressed Harry without taking his eyes off Hermione.

"If you had listened before you jumped to all the wrong conclusions you would know that I am more than two years older." Hermione paused to let this information sink in as Sirius turned to Harry, who nodded in confirmation.

"Okay. What happened? I'll listen." Sirius sat back slightly in the chair.

* * *

"So I was killed by Bellatrix, Snape killed Dumbledore, but on Dumbledore's orders, Voldemort killed you, Remus, then Harry killed Voldemort and you two somehow went back into the past and started undoing things?" Sirius' voice was incredulous.

"I know it's a lot to take in, old friend," Remus' presence was turning out to be a huge asset. Hermione wasn't sure how long it would have taken to get Sirius to believe what had happened were it not for his and Harry's presence. After a few more rounds of questions, he seemed to be coming to terms with things.

Sirius finally turned to Hermione "And what, may I ask, is going on with you and _him_?" He said the word as if it were dripping with something foul and smelly.

Hermione straightened herself up to her full height and looked down at Sirius almost haughtily. "He is the most honorable man I have ever met. I am going to marry _him_." Stressing the last word as a response to Sirius' previous tone, she said the word with utmost pride, a mix of the way one says the name of a childhood friend and the way a schoolgirl whispers her crush's name to a friend. As she said the last word, she reached up and pulled her hair behind her ear with her left hand, casually displaying her newly acquired adornment. Sirius' eyes got wide again as he looked around the room to the other faces. All nodded and smiled reassuringly.

"The Gryffindor princess and the Half Blood Prince." He said it as a statement of a fact he still had a hard time believing. He shook his head slightly for a few seconds, and then split into peals of laughter. "It would seem I've got a lot of catching up to do." With that, the tension that had covered the room like a thick fog since Sirius' arrival suddenly dissipated. Harry, Remus, and Sirius began to talk happily, glad to be finally reunited. After saying their goodbyes and an awkward handshake between Sirius and Severus, Hermione and Severus managed to leave the Burrow and apparate off in the direction of the castle.

* * *

Severus had been quiet on the walk from the apparition point, through the grounds, and up to his chambers. Hermione figured he simply had a lot on his mind, given the events of the evening, so she let him think in peace. She expected a matchingly quiet evening when they got up the spiral stairs, but the second they ascended the last steps Severus lunged at her. Before she knew it her back was up against the wall, Severus had one hand on either side of her head, his body was pressed into hers, and his mouth crushed against hers. She let out a small squeak of surprise, but was immediately swept up into the moment and began countering Severus' kiss with equal passion.

After enjoying a few minutes of his mouth, his body, his tongue, all intent on keeping her as tight to the wall as they could while he explored every inch of her body, Hermione managed to pull back a few inches and look at Severus with questioning eyes. The flames she saw in his eyes were enough to send a frission of thrill through her entire body. Still, she didn't know why now?

"You were the most majestic thing I have ever seen tonight," Severus answered her unspoken question, still panting heavily from their heated kiss. "No one has ever defended me before. Not like that. Not ever, actually." She saw where he was going and began to smile as her fingers twisted their way slowly into his hair. Severus continued, "I have never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life. You were absolutely incredible."

"No one gets to treat you like that ever again. You are the best man I've ever known, Severus. You deserve respect and, at least in my presence, I'm not going to tolerate anything less." Hermione saw the look of wonder growing on his face as she spoke.

When she had finished, Severus breathed an 'I love you' into the side of her neck as the fire resumed once more and he began nibbling down her neck. She moaned as his hands roamed her body and was immediately lifted up. She wrapped her legs around Severus' waist as he carried her to the bed, where he pinned her on her back and continued working his way down her body, leaving a trail of passionate kisses and vanished clothes as he travelled.

* * *

They lay completely naked, sweating, and still out of breath on the bed. After she regained her senses after the last moment of quivering ecstasy at Severus' hand, she managed to crawl up and rest her head on Severus' shoulder, draping her leg across his. For a moment, they both lay in silence, relishing the way their bodies fit like two puzzle pieces in this position. Severus was the one to break the silence.

"What did Dumbledore want?" After Severus spoke, Hermione propped her chin on his chest to look up at him.

"If you're thinking about Dumbledore right now I fear I did something wrong…" She loved that she was free to joke with this once feared man, and that it felt so natural to do so.

"If you had done any better I fear I would not be alive to converse with you, my dear. No, I just remembered that you never told me what your meeting was about." He looked down at her as a grin spread slowly across her face.

"Oh. Well…" she paused to bite her lip and, as Severus suspected, to build the suspense. "He offered me a job."


	22. Chapter 22: The Next Step

**AN: I am so sorry for the wait! Thank you all for your patience...it has been a crazy week. But fear not, I did not abandon Severus and Hermione. We probably have one more chapter after this...and then an epilogue...because I have no self control...**

* * *

**Chapter 21 - The Next Step**

Hermione closed her eyes and blinked…hard. Even with her eyes closed she could hear Ginny squealing behind her and the delicate sniffing of Minerva was indistinguishable somewhere to her right. She opened her eyes again and still couldn't believe what she was seeing. _I've never liked how I look in all white_. But she had to hand it to Madame Malkin, this dress was spectacular. The strapless bodice fit tightly over her top, showcasing the curves that normally hid under layers and layers of baggy jumpers. When the dress hit her hips, it slowly flared out into an ethereal collection of wispy white trains. Most of the wedding dresses she had seen were bulky and looked like the wearer would be better suited standing on top of a cake than walking down the aisle, but this dress suggested motion even when she stood completely still.

"You look so beautiful, my dear." Professor McGonagall's voice trembled slightly, her maternal urges swelling as she watched her former student twirl slowly, eyeing the mirror as if she wasn't sure she believed it.

"Are you sure it's not too…" Hermione's voice suggested skepticism, but her face had begun to indicate that she couldn't find anything to make her anything on the dress that made her look anything other than gorgeous.

"…perfect?" Ginny finished Hermione's sentence. "He's going to die when he sees you, Hermione." And with the thought of her Severus, Hermione's stony mask finally crumbled away as she broke into an ear-to-ear grin. Giggling like the schoolgirl she had not been for quite some time, she indulged herself in one more spin, watching in the mirror as the bottom of her dress fluttered in the small breeze created by her movement.

"Okay, I kind of love it." Hermione grinned at the two, still slightly teary-eyed women in the fitting room with her.

* * *

"Meddling old fool. I bring him back from the dead, and your first official act…it's like he can't help himself!" Severus muttered, mostly to himself, as the tailor's hands covered what felt like every inch of his body. He chanced a look over his shoulder at Harry, who was snickering quietly at Severus' mutters. _How times have changed. If someone had told me a year ago that I would be getting fitted for wedding robes with the bloody Boy Who Lived as my best man and I'd be doing it all voluntarily, why I'd have hexed them into the next dimension._

However, it was hard to hang onto the same level of bitterness he had previously held for every aspect of his life with the constant idea that in less than a week his Hermione would be Hermione Snape. Just thinking of the idea that she would be his, that she _wanted_ to be his, made it hard for him to suppress a smile that would truly be contradictory towards his hard-fought reputation as the surly potion master. But as the tailors hands continually tugged and pulled on the black fabric (_at least I get to wear black_) his mind wandered back to how this had all come to pass.

* * *

"He offered you a job?" Severus' eyes widened as Hermione recounted the outcome of her meeting with Dumbledore. "What position?"

"Professor of Arithmancy," Hermione said both meekly and with a small hint of pride. When she saw Severus' face light up, she beamed. "He said that after the battle Professor Vector didn't think she could manage to be at Hogwarts anymore, and with the independent work I had been doing…he thought that I would be able to manage. For the next year I will complete my seventh year course work while undergoing extensive training both in arithmancy and in teaching. I'll shadow different professors, learn as much as I can, and then begin teaching the following year."

"Congratulations, love, that's quite a vote of confidence!" Severus reached out to hug her, but stopped when he saw a flicker of something cross her face. Immediately worried, he pulled back. "What?"

"Well, there was one condition for my employment." Hermione bit her lip and glanced down before continuing. "Since I will technically be a student for one more year, he had, well, there are school rules against students _dating_ teachers."

Severus launched into a very well-spoken rant about how it was preposterous that Dumbledore could not see that what had transpired between them was far and above that which those rules sought to prevent when it hit him.

"Why did you say it like that?" His eyes dug deep into her as she dared to lift her brown eyes up to meet his gaze.

"He said that the only way we could navigate around our relationship and my continued presence as a student was if we…um…expedited things a bit." She held her breath, awaiting his outburst of rage and indignation, but it never came. Instead, he breathed a sigh of relief and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"You're not upset?" She looked at him questioningly.

"My dear fiancée," he pulled her deeper into his arms and used one hand to brush a tendril of hair out of her face as he spoke, "I had rather hoped the end result of my proposing to you would be that we would, in fact, get married." He placed another chaste kiss, this time on her nose. "While I would have preferred that Albus not have such a say in personal decisions between the two of us, it does give me an excellent excuse not to have to wait to make you my own." And with that, he swooped her up in his arms, carried her to the bed, and pressed his lips so fervently to hers that it was clear the conversation was over.

* * *

It was incredible to the couple how fast everyone in their lives had mobilized around the joint cause of their wedding. For everyone around them, it was a testament to the fact that the war was really over and an excellent excuse to focus on something other than repairing the damages to the castle, recovering from the vast number of funerals that had been held in the wake of the battle, and dealing with the emotional trauma that always came with war. No one could turn down the chance to celebrate something good that had happened because of the war. For those that had been items on Severus' list or the family members thereof, this was a chance to show their gratitude.

Ginny and Molly seemed to have made the wedding their full-time jobs. Hermione and Severus had both been told that they were officially banned from the now-restored Great Hall, for fear that they would catch a glimpse of the decorations that had already started going up. The happy couple was only too happy to accommodate, leaving the wedding planning to the "Weasley womenfolk", as Severus called them, and retreating into Severus' rooms. Their meals were served to them by house elves, much to Hermone's dismay, but she allowed it as this meant she was now free to spend quality time with Severus without the inconvenience of braving the crowds at mealtimes.

Much to Severus' surprise, they were not alone as often as he would have thought. Harry stopped by regularly in the evenings to visit not just Hermione, but Severus as well. He, Ginny, and Ron had been offered positions as Aurors and were just beginning training, so the conversation often revolved around his training, the best ways to track down remaining Death Eaters, and how best to avoid Ministry politics. Somehow the revelation of everything Severus had done for Harry in his mother's name had created a bond of mutual respect between the two. Hermione occasionally sat back in surprised silence as the two verbally dueled over whatever was that evening's hot topic.

Another surprising friendship was that between Severus and Lupin. Since the engagement party, Lupin regularly stopped by Severus' room for extended periods of time. Dumbledore had rehired Lupin as a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, so the first few days Lupin knocked hesitantly with muttered excuses about needing help refining the curriculum. After a while, the two men lapsed into an unusual friendship that often featured long work sessions about the application of certain spells to complex potions. After trying to follow one such conversation, even Hermione declared herself completely lost and allowed the men to retreat back into Severus' private laboratory to test their latest theory while she curled up with a heavy tome on advanced Arithmancy.

Hermione's favorite visitor was Minerva, as she now insisted on being called ("we're going to be colleagues, after all"). Minerva came up most mornings after breakfast to help Hermione with her teacher training. While Severus constantly reminded them that Hermione was only going to be the Arithmancy professor, the two witches had a knack for getting caught up in a topic and straying deep into transfiguration theory, historical runes, or many other realms, some of which he vehemently insisted were not actually real topics of study. The only thing that Hermione enjoyed more than her intellectual discussions with Minerva was listening to the sarcastic banter the two colleagues traded back and forth.

Even with all the visitors, Hermione and Severus made the most of their time together at night. It always started out with dinner, then a cup of tea and a discussion of the events of the day, yet they usually found themselves drawn toward the bed and discussion faded away into more interesting activities. While Severus made sure that the boundaries they had set remained intact, there were several moments when it was only the self control he had cultivated as a long time double agent in a brutal wizarding war that had made it possible to not pin her to the bed and claim her as his own.

After one such session, Hermione lay panting against Severus' chest. She lay silently for a few minutes, listening to the sound of his heartbeat returning to a normal pace. Severus' silky voice broke the silence.

"This is your last night as Hermione Granger, my dear. Any last requests?"

"I already have everything I want. Now I just need tomorrow to come," she said smilingly as she absentmindedly drew shapes on his chest with her fingers.

"I'm glad you feel that way. Would you indulge me one thing?" Severus sat up as he spoke and, seeing her nod of assent, traipsed over to his drawers and came back to the bed with a box in his hands. Hermione sat up, wrapping the sheet around herself like a toga, and looked excitedly at Severus.

"I got you a wedding present, but I know we will both be quite busy tomorrow, so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind opening it tonight." He handed her the plate-sized box and looked at her with a mix of the look of a small child on Christmas morning and that of someone of great faith looking at a holy relic. Hermione opened the box and gasped.

"How did you find this?" Her eyes were wide with shock, surprise, and adoration.

"I have some friends who are very good with locating charms. One of them owed me a fairly substantial favor. May I?" Hermione nodded, still overcome with astonishment and disbelief. As Severus pulled the sapphire necklace from the box, he wordlessly conjured a mirror so she could see herself as he put it on. To his great pleasure, he saw a smile growing rapidly on her face.

"I believe the tradition states you need something old, new, borrowed, and blue. This most definitely fits three out of four criteria, as it was borrowed from the nest of a particularly avaricious creature of the deep somewhere in the waters North of Anguilla." As he spoke, Hermione turned to him with a look of wonder on her face.

"I can't believe you even remembered the story I told you about my mom losing this. And you actually found it….thank you." It was the most heartfelt expression of thanks Severus had ever heard, reinforced by a slow, tender kiss.

"You look beautiful," he replied, watching the necklace mirror the way the moonlight danced off her eyes. Hermione's expression changed into a mildly mischievous smile as she spoke.

"Wait until you see me tomorrow."


	23. Chapter 23: The Wedding, Part I

**AN: Okay, I know I said only a few more chapters, but I simply can't fit the wedding into just one chapter as I planned. Too much good stuff, so here's part one. I guess we'll all be surprised at how many parts there end up being. Thank you again for all the reviews and favorites! If we get up to 100 reviews I'm seriously considering doing a one shot of choice for the 100th reviewer...**

**But now, with no further ado...**

* * *

**Chapter 23: The Wedding, Part I**

The next morning, she awoke to fresh tea on the bedside table and a piece of parchment where she expected to find Severus. Smiling at the memory of their old morning routine, she sipped gratefully at the tea while she unrolled the note.

_My love,_

_I hope you slept well. I had some business to attend to this morning, but should have returned by the time you awaken. When you are ready to receive company, please send a patronus to come find me. I have one more surprise for you_

_ Your Severus_

She chewed on her bottom lip, a perplexed smile playing on her face as she tried to figure out what he could possibly give her that he hadn't already. Knowing the curiosity would begin to eat away at her patience more and more with each passing minute, she quickly donned a dressing gown and grabbed a wand to send a patronus to Severus. She quickly swished her wand through the air with an 'expecto patronum', but gasped and almost dropped her wand as the spurt of silver shot out the end.

* * *

Severus was sitting in one of the lounges in the main area of the castle making polite but slightly nervous small talk when a burst of silver flashed through the door. He stood, expecting to see Hermione's playful otter coming towards him, but was surprised when a four-legged creature nimbly leaped into the room, trailing a thick, bushy tail behind her. He began trying to remember who in the castle had a patronus that was a fox, but he couldn't help but smile when his mind automatically associated the way the fox's tail seemed to flow after its owner with the way Hermione's hair… and then he heard her voice emanate from the silver creature.

"I was going to send you a patronus to let you know I was awake and ready for whatever magnificent surprise you have in store for me next, but apparently I had a surprise for you as well. I'm not sure what happened to my otter, but this clever young girl seems quite enthusiastic about her new form. Maybe you can fill me in on some reasons why patronuses change form when you come back? Soon? I missed waking up with you."

At the first words he had suspected what was going on, but he waited patiently for the message to finish before he took out his wand with shaking fingers. Before he cast his spell, he noticed that her patronus had not dissipated after she delivered the message as is normally the case with messenger patronuses. Instead, she sat in front of him, head slightly tipped as she watched him intently, as if waiting for an answer. He was again struck by the uncanny resemblance to the face his Hermione usually wore when she was waiting for an answer to one of her many questions.

Not daring to hope or guess as to what would happen, he waved his wand, muttered the incantation, and thought of the feeling of falling asleep with Hermione in his arms. The silver jet of light that shot out of his wand barely had time to escape the tip before it materialized. His jaw dropped as the slightly larger, obviously male fox cautiously approached Hermione's patronus. Though his patronus seemed to be taking its time to reach its destination, when the female saw her counterpart, she bounded playfully over to him and nudged her muzzle under his chin in a submissive gesture of pure affection.

Severus watched, eyes alight with joy, as the two foxes began crouching and pouncing on each other in unmistakable gestures of play. His fox paused suddenly to look back at him, as if he all the sudden realized that he had been created for a purpose. Severus nodded his head to indicate that he could precede him upstairs. The fox nodded solemnly, and then bounded off, his bushy tailed mate in hot pursuit.

* * *

Hermione was just putting her now empty teacup into the sink when she saw a flash of silver light come bounding through the door out of the corner of her eye. She turned around, already steeling herself to ignore the pang in her stomach when she saw Severus' doe, but she laughed out loud as she saw a larger fox come bounding into the room along with the one she had been so shocked to see come out of the end of her wand minutes earlier. She watched laughing as the two put on a continued display of the playful antics they had shown Severus earlier.

They were still playing as Severus opened the door just wide enough to poke his head in and see not only the flying tails of the two pouncing foxes, but the spellbound look of awe and happiness on his soon-to-be bride's face as she watched with delight. It was all he could do not to run over to her, pull her face to his, and use his kiss to explain to her exactly how much she meant to him, but his years of steely self control paid off and he simply watched as her enraptured face followed the two frolicking foxes as they chased each other around the room and finally out the window. As he caught her eyes, a happy tear rolled down her cheek as she finally found the words to speak.

"Foxes mate for life." This fact, simply stated, spoke volumes.

"Yes, they do, my love," he replied with an equally telling smile. After pausing to grin at each other like the idiots he knew they were beginning to resemble, Severus shook some sense into himself and cleared his throat.

"Are you ready for your surprise?" His face looked like a kid on Christmas morning. She couldn't help but catch his excitement, nodding enthusiastically. He slowly entered the room. She surveyed his hands to see what he was holding, but they were empty. Tilting her head at him in the exact same way her fox had only minutes ago, she silently posed her question. Severus smiled back as he held the door open for the two sets of footsteps she had not heard behind him.

* * *

"Mom! Dad!" Hermione sprinted across the room and flung herself into her parents' arms. They came forward to meet her and quickly enveloped her in a tight embrace. After pressing her eyes tight shut for a few seconds, savoring the feeling of being held by the parents she thought she had lost forever, she opened her eyes to find Severus' happily smiling face watching the reunion.

"How did you do it?" she asked incredulously, still refusing to let go of her parents.

"I don't suppose I've mentioned that I am excellent with memory restoring potions, have I?" He paused to savor the awestruck look of gratitude on her face. After a few minutes the Granger family managed to disentangle itself enough to sit down on the sofa. Hermone sat between Severus and her mother on the sofa, not knowing whose face to look at. Severus filled her in on how he had located her parents, reversed the memory charm, and given them a rough explanation of what had happened over the last year.

"You're not mad at me, then?" Hermione's timid response shocked Severus, made her mother sniff back a tear and pull Hermione into her side for another hug, and caused her father to reach forward and rest a hand on her knee.

"Of course not, little lightbulb." Her mother was the one finally to respond. "Severus explained to us how you kept us safe. We're just glad we made it back in time to see you get married. A girl needs her parents to get married."

"Plus, I have to give you away," Hermione noticed her usually-austere father radiating with warmth in her and Severus' direction, as if he was seriously contemplating hugging the both of them.

"Now, my love, I am going to give you some time to catch up. Remus has made me promise to stop by their quarters before the official wedding preparation time begins. Molly, Ginny, and Minerva said they would be up in about an hour to begin working on…whatever females do to get ready." He placed a swift but sweet kiss on her forehead as he stood to leave. "Mr. Granger, you are more than welcome to join me and my groomsmen as we get ready."

"Thank you, son. And thank you for everything you have done for us and for Hermione." The two men shook hands and Severus left the room with a wink and a promise to Hermione.

"When next you see me, you'll be becoming Mrs. Snape. Soon." He smiled and, in an even more uncharacteristic gesture of affection, blew a kiss towards his now quite blushing bride as the door shut. Hermione turned to face her parents, a giant smile plastered across her face.

"Okay, my dear, tell us _everything_!" Hermione giggled excitedly as she began to fill her parents in on the last year, thanking Severus silently for giving her everything she needed to make their wedding day absolutely perfect.


	24. Chapter 24: The Wedding, Part II

**AN: So this is basically all fluff. Sorry, not sorry. I couldn't help myself. And this isn't even all...the steamy bits will have to wait until next chapter. This is just happy, feel good, mushy-mush. Don't say I didn't warn you.**

* * *

**Chapter 24 - The Wedding, Part II**

After an hour that passed like a few minutes, Minerva and the Weasley Womenfolk came bursting up into the room. After a quick round of introductions and some basic small talk, Mr. Granger took his leave, kissing Hermione on the cheek and muttering something about going to find some Y-chromosomes. Molly, Minerva, and Mrs. Granger seemed to become instant friends, fawning over Hermione as she got ready. Hermione's mother had cried when she first saw Hermione's newly located necklace, and when she explained the story to the others, Mrs. Weasley had joined her in shedding a tear. Hermione couldn't help but notice as Ginny examined the necklace, Minerva's smile seemed forlorn. Hermione looked at her inquisitively, and she simply mouthed the word 'Severus' and continued smiling at the change this young Gryffindor had affected in her formerly sour colleague.

After Ginny helped Hermione step into her gown, Molly and Mrs. Granger went to work on her makeup, Molly amazing Hermione's mother with magical makeup application. In the meantime, Minerva's adept fingers wove through Hermione's hair, sweeping it up into a careful crown of braids and curls that made even Hermione's mane look like the most fashionable of updos. All the while, Ginny amused herself by taking photos on the muggle camera Mrs. Granger had brought with her, commenting repeatedly about how much better the photos would turn out when they were magically developed to move.

Hermione closed her eyes, feeling the fingers in her hair, listening to the excited voices of the four women she loved most in the world, and wondering just when her life got to be so perfect. It was this side of two months ago that she was sleeping in a tent with two teenaged boys, hunting the fragments of Riddle's shattered soul, harboring only the fleetest of hopes that there would even be a life to go back to after the battle was completed. What had happened to make everything turn out so right? _Severus._ It all went back to Severus. His sacrifice had enabled them to defeat the dark lord, his list had righted the wrongs of battle, and his love was the reason she was about to walk down the aisle. She was jerked back to reality by Mrs. Weasley's gentle teasing about how difficult it was to apply lip gloss if she insisted on smiling all the time.

* * *

Severus paced nervously in one of the side rooms just off the Great Hall. He had spent the morning with Remus, Harry, and Mr. Granger, trying to make enough conversation to seem pleasant, but really all he wanted was to be up in his quarters with his Hermione. As he paced, Albus stuck his head into the room to let Severus know it was time for him to take his place.

"Are you ready, my boy?"

Severus wanted to make a snide comment about how this entire ordeal could have been avoided (or at least downsized substantially) had Albus not felt the need to stick his nose yet again into Severus' personal business, but he found that even his Slytherin sarcasm was slightly beyond his reach on a day as happily important as today. Giving a silent nod, Severus went to take his place in the Great Hall. As they walked, Albus put a paternal hand on his shoulder. Severus was surprised at how little it irritated him.

The Great Hall was transformed so completely that Severus himself couldn't help but be impressed. _The Weasley Women outdid themselves. _The castle-created sky was the piercing blue of a perfect cloudless day. Tiny white flowers he couldn't quite identify were covering every beam and rafter in the room, as well as each row of chairs that had been set up on either side of a makeshift aisle from the large double doors to the newly-created altar before which he now stood. White ribbons were wrapped around seemingly every available surface. The effect was staggering, making it seem as though they were sitting inside a cloud in the giant blue sky.

Trying to ignore the alarmingly large crowd and lining up with Harry to his left, followed by Remus and Fred (who had absolutely insisted on standing up next to Severus on his 'big day', saying it was the least he could do) didn't lessen his nerves at all. _I'm getting married and my groomsmen are a marauder, the son of a marauder, and a Weasley. Wherever hell is, it is most certainly completely frozen over. _However, his bout of internal musing was interrupted as soft music began to play.

The first person to emerge from the large double doors at the end of the hall was the familiar face of Professor McGonagall, much less recognizable outside her formal robes. Hermione had declared that she didn't give a hoot about the ages of her bridesmaids and that she wanted her professor and mentor to be with her at the altar. Next was the blonde mess of curls that was Luna Lovegood. She looked radiant in the pale pink gown Hermione had selected for her bridesmaids. Finally, Ginny Weasley sauntered down the aisle, her eyes not leaving Harry's even for a second.

After Ginny took her place, the music swelled and everyone in the crowd rose to see Hermione's grand entrance. And that was when Severus felt his heart stop. He had been alternating between watching the procession and looking down at the floor in front of him, but when he looked up to see Hermione he was immediately riveted. If anyone had any questions about her age, they were dispersed in a heartbeat. The goddess that stood at the entrance to the Great Hall, beaming so hard she seemed to be glowing from head to toe, was clearly all woman. The gentle white fabric of her gown showcased her curves without sacrificing an ounce of modesty, creating a cross between a Greek goddess and an Elizabethan era princess. As she began to walk, the fabric of the dress flowed behind her as if it was part of the air that surrounded her, not a separate entity.

As she moved towards him, her eyes never left his. Severus' internal monologue stopped in its tracks, halted by the unequivocal beauty that was heading towards him. He accepted her hand and shook Mr. Granger's hand as if in a blur, but as she turned to face him and he glanced again into those soft, brown eyes he had grown to love so much, he felt an unrepressed grin spread across his face. Seeing his unrestrained joy, her smile quickly widened to match. Albus greeted the crowd and began speaking, but they simply stood there grinning at each other, allowing his words to wash over them without interrupting the shared joy of knowing they would never have to leave each other from then on. After a short introduction, Albus motioned to Severus, who took a deep breath before he began to speak.

"From a very young age I knew exactly how my life would turn out. I was destined for a life of darkness, unfulfilled wishes, and solitude. I was fated to wish for things and people that were clearly meant to end up elsewhere. I accepted this wholly and planned accordingly. I took my solace in planning for a dishonorable life to be atoned for with an honorable death. However, the night I found myself living out the death I had so carefully planned and which I so long ago accepted, someone came upon me and completely ruined my plans.

As everyone here can confirm, I am, by nature, a grumpy, sardonic, scowling bat of the dungeons. For reasons I did not know and could not understand, Hermione Granger gave me a second chance at life. It took me a while to figure out and even longer to admit that she _was_ the reason. I had accepted it as my destiny to live a short, dark, and unfulfilled life. I was wrong. It was my destiny to be with you. All the things I was so angry at the world for not getting…I was just biding my time until you came into my life.

You gave me my second chance. You alone make my life worthwhile. You saved my life and mended my fragmented soul. And now, it is my turn to spend every day of this blessed second chance you have given me loving you, protecting you, and ensuring that I do everything in my power to make your life as wonderful as the new one you have given me."

The crowded great hall was absolutely silent. Those in the room had striven to elicit a full sentence out of Severus, often in vain. This lengthy, soul-bearing speech from the most personal of men had wrought the most magical of silences across the crowd as it hit everyone just how special a love this must be to elicit this much a change in their potions master. Silence, Molly Weasley let out a comedically loud sob which brought a pat from Arthur, a giggle from the twins, and a great reduction in tension from the rest of the crowd. Still beaming steadily at her groom, Hermione began to speak.

"There has been more change for more people in the last year than almost any year in wizarding history. We saw our lives change, our friends die, and the very fabric of our lives alter. You, on the other hand, remain the most stable man I have ever met. From the day I first laid eyes on you, you were fair, and intelligent, and scowling," she said this with an impish smile that elicited quite a few giggles from the crowd, "and _good_." She stressed this last word, looking him deep in the eyes as she said it. "Whatever you did, you always had thought behind it and it was always for the greater good, even if no one knew it. So many unjust things have happened in the course of this war. So many unjust things that were out of our control, so when I saw a good, fair, intelligent man about to die, I couldn't let it happen. I didn't know why, but I just couldn't.

After being forced to spend days on end with you making sure you and your stubborn streak didn't reopen your wounds, I came to realize why I couldn't bear to see you live out the death you planned. You may be a grumpy, sardonic, scowling bat of the dungeons, but you are _my_ grumpy, sardonic, scowling bat of the dungeons. You have gone through torment, heartbreak, betrayal, and enough physical and mental torture to crack most men, yet you remained the only constant in my crumbled world. If you don't take my word for it, let the presence of Fred, Remus, Tonks, Sirius, and Dumbledore attest to the fact that you deserve every day of this second chance.

I don't know why you are interested in a bushy-haired, know-it-all like me, but I am truly honored to become your wife. As such, I promise to fill your days with the happiness, laughter, joy, and love that you deserved from the beginning. I love you with all my heart, my Severus."

As she spoke, he couldn't help feeling as if this was all a dream. Between the wafting aroma of the white flowers covering the hall, the white ribbons hanging from every conceivable location, and the white dress on the angel in front of him, he may as well have been in a cloud. Only the pressure of his hands in hers kept him tethered to reality and the fact that she really was there in front of him, willingly declaring her love for him in front of everyone she cared about.

The rest of the ceremony passed by in a haze. The two stared unblinkingly into each others' eyes, each not knowing what would happen if this connection was severed, but knowing that they were safe as long as they held onto each other. He beamed as she promised to love him exactly as he was, for better or worse. She giggled as he raised an eyebrow at 'in sickness and in health', as if they hadn't already been through that one. When Albus waved his wand and silver ribbons wove their two hands together, the entire crowd burst into applause, but Hermione and Severus felt a million miles away. All that mattered was when Albus announced that he could now kiss his bride.

Severus leaned down to meet her lips as if for the first time. She was _his_. He pulled her close to him with abandon knowing he never had to let go. He felt her hand run through his hair without the fear that it could be the last time because he now knew that he would feel it there every day for the rest of his life. She was his. And he was hers.

* * *

The reception began with a champagne toast. Hermione was more surprised than anyone when it was Severus who rose and spoke. "Everyone at Hogwarts knows exactly who I am. I am a man of few words, even fewer of which are complimentary. So when I stand in front of you and thank you for being here to celebrate my union with the woman whom I deem to be the most exquisite, intelligent, and awe inspiring creation that ever walked the earth, you all know _exactly_ how much it means."

Everyone knew that nothing more needed to be said. There was the clinking of glasses, a shared kiss between Severus and the still-blushing Hermione, a cat-call from either Fred or George, a wave of laughter, and then the music began playing once more.

The dance floor quickly filled as people wandered into the joyous crowd. Everyone seemed to be having the time of their lives. Fred and George led Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell in an intricate dance that seemed to be completely of their own creation. Harry and Ginny slow danced even to the fast songs, seemingly unaware that anyone else was even in the same room. Hermione was pleased to see a blushing Ron stumbling through a dance with what she could only assume was a third Delacour sister. Molly and Arthur danced next to Hermione's parents, talking animatedly with each other as they danced. Bill and Fleur swirled elegantly around the floor, performing moves the other couples didn't even dare attempt. Lupin and Tonks were laughing hysterically as Sirius attempted to drag a protesting Minerva around the dance floor with moves far too spirited for the music that was actually playing. Hermione couldn't help but smile as she saw a tuxedoed Dobby dancing with a very uncomfortable looking Winky in the corner of the room.

As Severus swirled her around the dance floor in consummate Slytherin grace and dignity, Hermione felt her eyes close briefly as she sighed in contentment. Seeing her eyes close, her husband seized the opportunity to whisper in her ear, caressing her with his silky voice.

"Are you happy, my love?"

"I have never been happier." Her face confirmed the truth of her statement as she opened her eyes to beam back at him.

"Everything is perfect."

He couldn't have agreed more.


	25. Chapter 25: The Wedding, Part III

**I swear I didn't disappear! *Hides behind computer to avoid objects being thrown at her.* I am so sorry for such a long wait, but I hope to return to the normal one chapter every few days rate for the remaining chapters. I keep thinking it's going to end, but the part that comes next really doesn't seem to want to cooperate. Anyway, here's the end of the wedding, as promised. The wedding night *cough, cough* will be next chapter, and then there will be an epilogue. Thank you so much for sticking with me and for your lovely reviews. They make my day!**

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**Chapter 25 – The Wedding, Part III**

After a few songs, Harry tapped Severus on the shoulder, "can I steal a dance with the bride? I have a favor to ask her."

Severus stepped aside much less begrudgingly than Hermione expected, graciously muttering something about teaching Minerva a thing or two about how to dance properly. However, as he and the stately head of Gryffindor house slowly and gracefully circled the dance floor, he couldn't help but notice Hermione's eyes getting wider and wider as she listened to whatever Harry was saying. When he finished, she gave a little jump (he assumed to be one of joy) and almost ruined his moniker as the Boy Who Lived by squishing him in a tight embrace.

Before Severus could decide what to think of the situation, the song ended and Albus' magically magnified voice could be heard throughout the great hall.

"It is now time for the time-honored tradition of the bouquet toss. If someone could kindly locate the bride's bouquet?" As the maid of honor, Ginny grabbed Hermione's bouquet from the head table and hurried over to the corner of the room where Hermione and Harry were still standing. She handed them to Hermione and asked if she should begin corralling the other unattached females, but Hermione spoke to the room at large.

"In light of some special circumstances, we're going to do things a little differently this time." She preceded to hand her bouquet back to Ginny with a huge smile plastered across her face. Ginny's confusion was only heightened as the crowd gasped suddenly. She looked at Hermione questioningly, trying to ascertain what was happening, but Hermione's eyes had left her redheaded friend and were now looking down at something behind her. Ginny turned around, almost tripping over the kneeling form of Harry Potter, ring in hand, grinning madly and blushing to his ears. It was Ginny's turn to gasp as she fought back tears and Harry began to speak.

"In the last year we have all fought with everything we have to secure our right to the future we want. You are the only future I want. Ginevra Molly Weasley, will you marry me?"

Ginny nodded wordlessly, having lost the battle to tears after Harry's first sentence. The crowd applauded loudly as Harry slipped the ring onto her finger. Hermione, having snuck off after Ginny turned around to see Harry, snuggled into Severus' side. Everything was exactly how it was supposed to be. She couldn't have imagined a future this right even a month ago, but feeling the squeeze of her Severus' arms around her, she couldn't help but think that all the suffering they had all gone through had been absolutely worth it.

* * *

Having thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the merriment of all their friends, Hermione and Severus found themselves being pulled toward the door. However, it seemed as the world was conspiring against an expeditious exit. First Hagrid pulled Hermione aside, dragging her through the most uncoordinated attempt at a dance. While Hermione was carefully attempting to dodge Hagrid's thundering feet, she saw Sirius quietly approach Severus. Still worried about the tenuous relationship between the two former schoolmates, she tried to keep track of their conversation while dancing, but self preservation (or at least preservation of her toes) prevailed and she trusted her husband enough to keep things civil with Sirius…at least in front of this many witnesses.

Severus had been thoroughly enjoying his quiet corner, watching with a smile as his giggling bride was dragged across the dance floor by a less-than-coordinated half giant. However, his smile faded as he saw the imminently approaching Padfoot. Steeling himself for at best an awkward conversation and at worst a very unwelcome confrontation, he faced the incoming marauder with a blank face.

"Uh, Severus?" Sirius spoke nervously, as if he was dreading the conversation even though he was the one starting it. Severus didn't answer with words, but inclined his head to listen as his childhood tormenter spoke to somewhere in the vicinity of his chest.

"I wanted to officially apologize for," he took a breath while seeminly searching for the right way to phrase something, but gave an exhale of defeat and just said, "everything." Even Severus' extensive training as a spy couldn't completely mask his surprise as Sirius continued.

"Harry has filled me in over the last week on all the, um, events since I died. He told me everything you did to get us back, and, well, everything you had been doing all along…" Sirius seemed to be battling the urge to address his words in the general direction of Severus' shoes now, but he took a deep breath to steel his Gryffindor courage and looked him directly in the eye.

"I misjudged you. And I'm sorry." For a brief second the Slytherin in Severus was tempted to leave him hanging in his remorse, just for a few moments to watch him twist in the wind, but when he saw a flash of white in the corner of his eye, the sight of his wonderful, pure, second chance in life going dancing past was enough to keep the desire in check. Instead, Severus looked Sirius dead in the eye and extended his hand.

"It is all in the past now." Sirius followed the line of Severus' gaze as the two shook hands.

"You really love her, don't you?" Severus would not have expected it, but he could tell the honest sincerity in the marauder's question. He answered in kind.

"She is everything." Hearing this answer and Severus' tone of reverence as he watched Hermione, Sirius shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope and handed it to Severus, mumbling something about a wedding present. Severus opened the envelope and looked up at Sirius' face, now sporting an embarrassed half smile.

Sirius explained, "I didn't figure that you would want to spend your wedding night in the castle, and I know Hermione is muggle born so she should appreciate it."

"This is, to my knowledge, quite an expensive choice…" Severus' words straddled the boundary between statement and question.

"There is far too much gold in the Black family vault. You two are worth it." When Sirius heard the last sentence come out of his mouth, he quickly reddened and added a mumbled addendum. "Plus, I enjoy the summersaults Bellatrix must be doing in her grave knowing her family fortune is being used to fund the wedding night accommodations of Harry Potter's muggle-born best friend and the blood traitor, double agent that enabled the downfall of her precious Dark Lord."

At this, Severus' last wall of hesitation began to crack, and he allowed himself to smile and chuckle at the decidedly wonderful mental image at the rage this would provoke were Bellatrix to be alive to hear it.

"I'll drink to that." He saw the relieved smile on Sirius face and wondered just how much more history could be rewritten. Here he stood, exchanging jokes with his childhood nemesis, openly accepted by the members of the Order that surrounded him, married to a Gryffindor, and actually looking forward to his future for the first time in his adult life. _How much better could things get?_ However, just as this thought hit him he saw Hermione walking toward him with an all-too-familiar smile on her face that reminded him what lay in store for them once they escaped the wedding to make use of the hotel key he held in his hand. _Perhaps it _can_ get even better than this._


	26. Chapter 26: Happily Ever After

**And here lies the last chapter! I will probably do an epilogue or two because I think I shall miss these two, but this wraps up the story. Hope you enjoy!**

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**Chapter 26 – Happily Ever After**

After a metaphorical hail of goodbyes, hugs, and best wishes and a literal hail of white flower petals enchanted to float slowly through the air, Severus and Hermione held hands as they made their way to the apparition point just outside the main gates of the castle. Albus had made them promise to stay away for the rest of the summer to enjoy their honeymoon, but informed them that as soon as September drew near they would be welcomed back with open arms to resume their roles as teachers at the school they both loved so much. Hermione didn't think she could get any happier until she reached for Severus so they could apparate together and he instead swept her up into his arms. She giggled and looked up to see his signature smirk plastered on his face.

"Tradition." He said simply, clearly enjoying the peel of giggles that had been unleashed as her feet left the ground.

"Do I get to know where we're going?" She had a feeling she could guess the answer, but she was enjoying her husband's playful mood.

"Now what fun would that be?" He buried his face in her hair in his attempt to give her a kiss as they apparated away. Hermione gasped when they materialized already inside the nicest hotel room she had ever seen.

"Severus, where _are_ we?" She almost whispered as she looked around at the room. Everything was clean, large, and white. There were flowers on a large round table in the center of the room, as well as on the side tables on either side of the fluffiest and biggest bed she had ever seen.

"Surprisingly enough, our amenities were provided as a wedding gift from the Black family. Well, it came by way of Sirius, but I'm sure Bellatrix would…"

The ambush of Hermione's lips on his cut his sentence short. After a few seconds of a passionate embrace, Hermione pulled her lips away from his just far enough to make solid eye contact.

"Severus, you cannot possibly fathom how little I wish to discuss Bellatrix Lestrange at the moment."

"Oh I think I can imagine…_wife_." He stressed the last word in such a way that his steely velvet voice left nothing to the imagination as to what he was thinking. She exhibited an intoxicating mix of blushing and grinning, at which he yanked her hand in such a way that she fell into his arms. Anticipating her trajectory, he met her lips for lips, arms for arms, and quickly pushed all thought from her mind. The kiss grew more and more heated until he had the sense to break apart from her before he took her right there on the entryway floor.

Panting, she looked up at him, torn between dismay at the absence of his lips on hers and anticipation of what was to come. With a wandless, wordless spell, Severus turned off the fluorescent lighting of the hotel room and instantaneously replaced it with the light of countless, well-placed, conjured candles. Even in the newly-dimmed lighting he could see Hermione live up to the moniker of a true blushing bride.

"Are you ready, Severus?" she said, trying to use a joking tone to lighten the ever-mounting tension that seemed to be crackling throughout the room. However, the dark eyed man staring hungrily down at her did not seem to perceive her attempts at lightening the mood. He peered fiercely into her eyes as he spoke in the huskiest version she had ever heard of his cool steel and velvet voice.

"Madam Snape, I have been waiting for you my entire life."

She could do nothing but blush, swallow nervously, and hang desperately on to her connection with the dark eyes she had come to love. Slowly, he reached into her hair and began taking it out pin-by-pin, placing them one by one on the table next to them, all without breaking eye contact. When her hair had been freed and was falling in gentle waves down her back, she turned slowly, now facing away from him and gazing back at him over her shoulder. He gently swept her curtain of hair over her shoulder and began to undo the lacing down the back of her dress, pausing every so often to kiss the newly uncovered skin of her back.

When he reached the bottom of the laces, he gently grabbed the top of the dress and began easing it down her body, lowering his body as the dress fell so that when the shimmery white fabric was fully pooled on the floor at her feet he was kneeling in front of her. He planted a delicate, chaste kiss on her stomach and rose, trailing his lips over her body as he made his way back up to her mouth. As he rose, he gathered her in his arms and, without removing his lips from hers, slowly carried her to the bed. He deposited her on her back, but Hermione seemed to finally have found her Gryffindor courage and swung her legs over the side of the bed, sitting up and bringing her hands to his neck to begin undoing the buttons of his shirt.

They had undressed each other almost every night since their relationship first crossed the boundary into the physical realm, but both knew this time was different. She kissed the skin beneath each undone button and his hands ghosted over every inch of her exposed flesh leaving goose pimples in their wake. Soon their clothes had been carefully discarded on the floor next to the bed, leaving the newlyweds pressed against each other, savoring the sparks caused by their skin-to-skin contact.

After removing the last of her bridal white undergarments, Severus pulled her close to him. He was still standing by the side of the bed, placed between her knees as she sat on the edge. He kissed her deeply, gathering her head in his hands as he did. She felt his arousal pressing up against her stomach as he leaned into her. He slowly pushed her backwards, angling her head towards the pillows and shifting her feet towards the footboard. He looked down at the smiling, brunette angel looking seductively up at him and took a brief moment to thank whatever deity would listen for the second chance she had given him.

Growing impatient with the physical distance caused by her spouse's moment of introspection, she grabbed Severus' closest hand and gently pulled him until he was leaning over to kiss her. Without leaving her lips, he gently nestled himself so he was between her legs. Their kisses only intensified as he began rubbing himself against her wetness, causing her to moan audibly and press her hips up towards his. When he could wait no longer, he pulled his face back and looked into the light brown eyes he had come to love so much.

She smiled and nodded her silent assent to his unspoken question. Severus placed a small kiss on her nose. Taking a deep breath, he slowly pressed into her. He felt the resistance of the barrier that attested to the fact that she was his and only his. Looking in her eyes, she again nodded slightly, and he thrust all the way into her. His first thought was that this is truly what heaven must feel like. All the physical pain he had encountered in all his years as a Death Eater would be counterbalanced in the next ten minutes if this was how good it felt to be inside her.

A split second later, he saw the grimace that had flitted across her face and immediately regretted that his first thought had been a selfish one. He immediately began apologizing and moved to pull away from her, but was halted by one of her hands grabbing his hindquarters (with surprising strength) and holding him inside her. He looked down at her face to see what was going on, but finding no answers spoke his worries aloud.

"I don't want to hurt you." She thought his obvious concern was more than a little adorable. The radiance of the smile she directed up towards him began to melt away the ball of worry that had suddenly taken hold in his chest.

"We both knew that part wasn't going to be comfortable, but it's over," she kissed various locations on his face as she spoke, moving from his lips, to his cheeks, to his forehead, to the tip of his nose.

"Do you wish to continue?" She could tell from his expression that worry clearly functioned as the driving force behind his question, but the huskiness in his silky voice showed that he vehemently hoped the answer to the question was yes.

"Severus, you feel incredible." He almost couldn't believe what he was hearing, but seeing the hungry intensity in her eyes he couldn't help but be convinced. He was unsure as to how to proceed until he felt her draw her hips down into the mattress until he almost came unsheathed from inside her and then firmly thrust them up to meet his body. Both of them gasped as the sensation radiated throughout their bodies. "Yes, I wish to continue," she said with a devilish grin.

This was all he needed to dive headlong into another passionate kiss. As he lost himself in her luscious lips, tangling his hand into her mane of bushy curls, he slowly began moving her hips against hers. Hearing her moan into his mouth, he knew the sensation was just as wonderful for her as it was for him. They quickly found their rhythm, her nails dragging down his back as he steadily increased his pace. When she changed the angle of her hips to give him better access, she was pleased to hear what could have qualified as a gasp, a moan, or possibly an expletive, she wasn't sure which.

As the pace climbed faster, Hermione felt the familiar feeling in her core that meant she was close, but this time she felt that instead of being the familiar burst of pleasure when she came it would be an explosion of almost a frightening magnitude.

"I'm close," she whispered into his ear. _Thank goodness, I didn't know how much longer I was going to be able to hold out._ Severus thought, grateful for the fact that they seemed to be just as compatible in this area as they were in every other. Hearing her words, he sped up the pace slightly, bringing one hand under her rear to pull her hips even closer to his as he thrust. He heard her gasps growing louder as he felt her muscles begin to tense around him.

She felt his pace quicken and felt him hit the spot deep inside her that she knew would make her lose her mind. Then the world seemed to explode. In a burst of white light, she felt her back involuntarily arch off the bed as she felt the pleasure explode from the spot where their bodies joined and radiate throughout her body to her fingers and toes. She was not responsible for what noises she made or what her body did, but she was vaguely aware of her legs curling around Severus' waist and her arms clinging to his neck as if he was the only thing tethering her to this world.

As if the pulsing of Hermione's muscles around him wouldn't have been enough to push him over the edge, the sight of her face as she came undone beneath him, the sound of her voice huskily yelling out his name, and the feeling of her body on his as her back arched triggered a feeling he had never before experienced and had no words to describe. He felt his release continue as her body continued pulsing around him.

When their bodies' reactions finally stopped and their minds came back into their bodies, Severus' and Hermione's eyes found each other again. They saw their own exact feelings of awe and amazement mirrored in the other's eyes and both broke into giggles.

"That was…" he began, still trying to catch his breath.

"…amazing?" she finished, occasioning a vehement nod from Severus.

Slowly lowering himself to her side, he positioned himself on his back and wrapped his arm around her as she curled up against his side and placed her head on his chest. She absentmindedly trailed her fingers across his chest as they lay close enough to feel each others' hearts racing.

"That, my love, was most definitely worth the wait," Severus commented, leaning down to place a chaste kiss on the lips of the still breathless witch cuddled up next to him.

"I'm honored that you did wait." The sincerity in her voice floored him as she spoke. She planted another quick kiss on his lips, but when she pulled away her devilish smile had returned. "I do think that I should probably do something to make up for the years you spent waiting though, I mean it's hardly fair…" The twinkle in her eye and the mischief in her smile were contagious.

"Oh I'm sure we could figure out some way to make up for lost time," he said with his patented smirk. She answered only by pulling his face to hers in a passionate kiss. _Principles of biology be damned, _Severus thought as he felt himself harden at the suggestive way she pressed herself up against him. Feeling his reaction, Hermione pulled herself on top of her new husband as they continued to celebrate their wedding night.

* * *

The next morning over a decadent spread of breakfast foods that had arrived unsolicited at their door, Hermione and Severus, both clad in the hotel-provided bathrobes, basked in the joy of what had been a perfect wedding, a perfect night, and what looked to be the beginning of a perfect honeymoon. In the middle of a conversation on where they should begin their travels, Severus froze halfway through his explanation of the dangerous specimens of dark creatures that can be found in tropical islands at this time of year.

"Love, what is it?" Hermione asked, putting down the pancake she had been attacking.

"Do you happen to have a quill in that beaded bag of yours?"

"Here," she said, passing him the muggle pen with the hotel's name and logo on it. "It's like a self-inking quill, just start writing."

Severus shot her a raised eyebrow glare that clearly indicated he did not need to be lectured on the protocols of muggle writing implements. She received it in the spirit he had intended and returned the glare by sticking her tongue out at him and biting ferociously into her pancake with a giggle. Severus couldn't keep from smiling as he grabbed the pen and began scribbling on something she could not see over the bucket of ice in the center of the table.

Seconds later, he handed her back the pen, as well as a white napkin from the room service tray. She took both items in hand, looking quizzically at him. However, when she turned the napkin over, she clasped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide. When her hand fell away from her mouth, its absence revealed an awestruck grin. The white napkin had a familiar-looking monogram of the hotel stamping "The Corinthia" in the bottom corner. On the napkin, she saw a simple sentence written Severus' familiar scrawl:

_'Listen to her.'_

Eyes alight with excitement, she looked up at his face. Her gaze up at the face of her new husband revealed a knowing grin on his face.

"It appears we have one more journey to make before we turn the time turner in to Albus."

Still smiling from ear to ear, she took the pen and neatly added a line of her careful handwriting below Severus':

_'…and they all lived happily ever after.'_

And so they did.


End file.
